An acylsugar-deficient <i>Nicotiana benthamiana</i> strain for aphid and whitefly research
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Nicotiana benthamiana is used extensively as a platform for transient gene expression and as a model system for studying plant-virus interactions. However, many tobacco-feeding generalist herbivores, including Myzus persicae (green peach aphid), Bemisia tabaci (whitefly), Macrosiphum euphorbiae (potato aphid), Heliothis virescens (tobacco budworm), Trichoplusia ni (cabbage looper), and Helicoverpa zea (corn earworm), grow poorly on N. benthamiana , limiting its utility for research on plant-insect interactions. Using CRISPR/Cas9, we generated knockout mutations in two N. benthamiana acylsugar acyltransferases, ASAT1 and ASAT2 , which contribute to the biosynthesis of insect-deterrent acylsucroses. Whereas asat1 mutations reduced the abundance of two predominant acylsucroses, asat2 mutations caused almost complete depletion of foliar acylsucroses. The tested hemipteran and lepidopteran species survived, gained weight, and/or reproduced significantly better on asat2 mutant plants than on wildtype N. benthamiana . Furthermore, both asat1 and asat2 mutations reduced the water content and increased the temperature of leaves, indicating that foliar acylsucroses can protect against desiccation. Two experiments demonstrated the utility of the N. benthamiana asat2 mutant line for insect bioassays. Transmission of turnip mosaic virus by M. persicae was significantly improved by an asat2 mutation. Tobacco rattle virus constructs were used for virus-induced gene silencing of acetylcholinesterase , squalene synthase , toll-like receptor 7 , and tubulin-specific chaperon D genes in B. tabaci , an experiment that would have been difficult with wild-type N. benthamiana due to high insect mortality. Additionally, the absence of acylsugars in asat2 mutant lines will simplify transient expression assays for the functional analysis of acylsugar biosynthesis genes from other Solanaceae.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.006 | 0.004 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".