Plants are attacked by a broad array of herbivores and pathogens. In response, plants deploy an arsenal of defensive traits. In Brassicaceae, the glucosinolate–myrosinase complex is a sophisticated two-component system to ward off opponents. However, this so-called “mustard oil bomb” is disarmed by a glucosinolate sulfatase of a crucifer specialist insect, diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae). Sulfatase activity of this enzyme largely prevents the formation of toxic hydrolysis products arising from this plant defense system. Importantly, the enzyme acts on all major classes of glucosinolates, thus enabling diamondback moths to use a broad range of cruciferous host plants.

Glucosinolate profiles differ among Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes, caused by the composition of alleles at several glucosinolate biosynthetic loci. One of these, GS-Elong , harbors a family of methylthioalkylmalate synthase (MAM) genes that determine the side chain length of aliphatic glucosinolate structures. Fine mapping reveals that GS-Elong constitutes an insect resistance quantitative trait locus, caused by variation in glucosinolate profiles conferred by polymorphism of MAM alleles in this region. A sequence survey of randomly chosen ecotypes indicates that GS-Elong is highly variable among A. thaliana ecotypes: indel polymorphisms are frequent, as well as gene conversion events between gene copies arranged in tandem. Furthermore, statistical methods of molecular population genetics suggest that one of the genes, MAM2 , is subject to balancing selection. This may be caused by ecological tradeoffs, i.e., by contrasting physiological effects of glucosinolates on generalist vs. specialist insects.

Glucosinolates are defensive secondary compounds that display large structural diversity in Arabidopsis thaliana and related plants. Much attention has been paid to variation in the biosynthesis of Met-derived aliphatic glucosinolates and its ecological consequences, but little is known about the genes that cause qualitative and quantitative differences in Trp-derived indole glucosinolates. We use a combination of quantitative trait locus (QTL) fine-mapping and microarray-based transcript profiling to identify CYP81F2 (At5g57220), encoding a cytochrome P450 monooxygenase, as the gene underlying Indole Glucosinolate Modifier1 (IGM1), a metabolic QTL for the accumulation of two modified indole glucosinolates, 4-hydroxy-indole-3-yl-methyl and 4-methoxy-indole-3-yl-methyl glucosinolate. We verify CYP81F2 function with two SALK T-DNA insertion lines and show that CYP81F2 catalyzes the conversion of indole-3-yl-methyl to 4-hydroxy-indole-3-yl-methyl glucosinolate. We further show that the IGM1 QTL is largely caused by differences in CYP81F2 expression, which results from a combination of cis- and trans-acting expression QTL different from known regulators of indole glucosinolate biosynthesis. Finally, we elucidate a potential function of CYP81F2 in plant–insect interactions and find that CYP81F2 contributes to defense against the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) but not to resistance against herbivory by larvae from four lepidopteran species.

Indole glucosinolates, derived from the amino acid Trp, are plant secondary metabolites that mediate numerous biological interactions between cruciferous plants and their natural enemies, such as herbivorous insects, pathogens, and other pests. While the genes and enzymes involved in the Arabidopsis thaliana core biosynthetic pathway, leading to indol-3-yl-methyl glucosinolate (I3M), have been identified and characterized, the genes and gene products responsible for modification reactions of the indole ring are largely unknown. Here, we combine the analysis of Arabidopsis mutant lines with a bioengineering approach to clarify which genes are involved in the remaining biosynthetic steps in indole glucosinolate modification. We engineered the indole glucosinolate biosynthesis pathway into Nicotiana benthamiana, showing that it is possible to produce indole glucosinolates in a noncruciferous plant. Building upon this setup, we demonstrate that all members of a small gene subfamily of cytochrome P450 monooxygenases, CYP81Fs, are capable of carrying out hydroxylation reactions of the glucosinolate indole ring, leading from I3M to 4-hydroxy-indol-3-yl-methyl and/or 1-hydroxy-indol-3-yl-methyl glucosinolate intermediates, and that these hydroxy intermediates are converted to 4-methoxy-indol-3-yl-methyl and 1-methoxy-indol-3-yl-methyl glucosinolates by either of two family 2 O-methyltransferases, termed indole glucosinolate methyltransferase 1 (IGMT1) and IGMT2.