Science, Space and Technology News 2024
Researchers at Michigan State University found that tomato plants utilize two separate metabolic pathways to produce acylsugars in roots and trichomes, offering new strategies for natural pest resistance in agriculture. Credit: SciTechDaily.com, Michigan State University researchers reveal an unexpected genetic revelation about the sugars found in “tomato tar,” shedding light on plant defense mechanisms and their potential applications in pest control.
In Michigan State’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, tomato seedlings are grown for the Last lab’s research into the Solanaceae plant family, also known as nightshades. The researchers analyzed unique chemical differences between roots and shoots, both of which contained acylsugars. Credit: Connor Yeck/MSU
“Take for instance acylsugars. You won’t find them produced in the leaves or stems of a tomato plant. These physically sticky defense metabolites are made right in the tip of the trichomes.” To begin tackling the evolutionary enigma, lab members collaborated with specialists at MSU’s Mass Spectrometry and Metabolomics Core and staff at the Max T. Rogers Nuclear Magnetic Resonance facility.
When they knocked out the root acylsugar candidate gene, root acylsugar production vanished, leaving trichome acylsugar production untouched. These findings were further proof of the parallel metabolic pathways that exist in a single tomato plant. “Usually in BGCs, the genes are co-expressed in the same tissues and under similar conditions,” said Kerwin.“But here, we have two separate yet interlinked groups of genes. Some expressed in trichomes, and some expressed in roots.”, with hopes of identifying when and how these two unique acylsugar pathways developed. Specifically, the researchers drew attention to a moment some 19 million years ago when the enzyme responsible for trichome acylsugars was duplicated.
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