Aphids are important pests which cause direct damage by feeding or indirect prejudice by transmitting plant viruses. Viruses are known to induce modifications of plant cues in ways that can alter vector behavior and virus transmission. In this work, we addressed whether the modifications induced by the aphid-transmitted Turnip yellows virus (TuYV) in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana also apply to the cultivated plant Camelina sativa, both belonging to the Brassicaceae family. In most experiments, we observed a significant increase in the relative emission of volatiles from TuYV-infected plants. Moreover, due to plant size, the global amounts of volatiles emitted by C. sativa were higher than those released by A. thaliana. In addition, the volatiles released by TuYV-infected C. sativa attracted the TuYV vector Myzus persicae more efficiently than those emitted by non-infected plants. In contrast, no such preference was observed for A. thaliana. We propose that high amounts of volatiles rather than specific metabolites are responsible for aphid attraction to infected C. sativa. This study points out that the data obtained from the model pathosystem A. thaliana/TuYV cannot be straightforwardly extrapolated to a related plant species infected with the same virus.

Plants produce approximately 300 aromatic molecules enzymatically linked to prenyl side chains via C-O bonds. These O -prenylated aromatics have been found in taxonomically distant plant taxa as compounds beneficial or detrimental to human health, with O -prenyl moieties often playing crucial roles in their biological activities. To date, however, no plant gene encoding an aromatic O -prenyltransferase ( O -PT) has been described. This study describes the isolation of an aromatic O -PT gene, CpPT1 , belonging to the UbiA superfamily, from grapefruit ( Citrus × paradisi, Rutaceae). This gene is responsible for the biosynthesis of O -prenylated coumarin derivatives that alter drug pharmacokinetics in the human body. Another coumarin O -PT gene of the same protein family was identified in Angelica keiskei , an apiaceous medicinal plant containing pharmaceutically active O -prenylated coumarins. Phylogenetic analysis of these O -PTs suggested that aromatic O -prenylation activity evolved independently from the same ancestral gene in these distant plant taxa. These findings shed light on understanding the evolution of plant secondary metabolites via the UbiA superfamily.