Transcriptome analysis of intraspecific competition in Arabidopsis thalianareveals organ-specific signatures related to nutrient acquisition and general stress response pathways

BMC Plant Biology

Research Article

Laurent Keller¹  Fabian Schweizer²  Caroline Gouhier-Darimont²  Frédéric G Masclaux²  Philippe Reymond²  Friederike Bruessow³ 

[1] Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland;Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland;Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland;Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Carl-von-Linne-Weg 10, 50829, Köln, Germany;

关键词: Arabidopsis thaliana;    Gene expression;    Intraspecific competition;    Herbivory;    Abiotic stress;    Biotic stress;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2229-12-227

 received in 2012-07-29, accepted in 2012-11-28,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPlants are sessile and therefore have to perceive and adjust to changes in their environment. The presence of neighbours leads to a competitive situation where resources and space will be limited. Complex adaptive responses to such situation are poorly understood at the molecular level.ResultsUsing microarrays, we analysed whole-genome expression changes in Arabidopsis thaliana plants subjected to intraspecific competition. The leaf and root transcriptome was strongly altered by competition. Differentially expressed genes were enriched in genes involved in nutrient deficiency (mainly N, P, K), perception of light quality, and responses to abiotic and biotic stresses. Interestingly, performance of the generalist insect Spodoptera littoralis on densely grown plants was significantly reduced, suggesting that plants under competition display enhanced resistance to herbivory.ConclusionsThis study provides a comprehensive list of genes whose expression is affected by intraspecific competition in Arabidopsis. The outcome is a unique response that involves genes related to light, nutrient deficiency, abiotic stress, and defence responses.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Masclaux et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.