Insect herbivores selectively mute GLV production in plants

Through co-evolution insect herbivores have developed a myriad of strategies to manipulate host plant defense responses that include the synthesis of defensive compounds whose composition depends on the insect feeding mode. Among the plant-produced compounds are jasmonates (JAs), and green leafy volatiles (GLVs), metabolites produced by the two parallel and competing branches of the oxylipin pathway. Here we provide evidence that chewing insects stimulate JA production but suppress the synthesis of GLVs through the transcriptional and post transcriptional reprogramming of critical genes in the corresponding pathway. We further establish that herbivore-derived elicitors known as herbivore-associated molecular patterns (HAMPs) are responsible for the reprogramming of these pathway genes. Through this strategy chewing herbivores coerce the plant signaling machinery that would otherwise leads to a reduction in the nutritional quality of the immediate and neighboring plants, and additionally shelters the herbivores from their natural enemies that are otherwise guided by the GLV cues to prey-infested plants.