Omics in Plant-Insect Interactions

Book excerpt: Herbivorous insects, such as piercing-sucking hemipteran insects and chewing Lepidopteran insects, must establish close associations with their host plants in order to modulate plant cellular processes to promote feeding and reproduction. In response to herbivore attacks, plants have developed a complex immune system such as plant signalings, plant resistant genes, and plant secondary metabolite. A sophisticated molecular arms race between plants and insects involves the interaction between different molecules from plants and insects. The secondary metabolite and resistant genes of plants can be used as defense tools against the infestation of insects. In contrast, the various types of detoxification enzymes and effectors from insects can interfere with plant defense at multiple levels for better adaptation. These metabolite substances and resistant genes of plants and detoxification enzymes and effectors of insects are involved in complex networks of genetic, physical, metabolic and molecular interactions between plants and insects. And these molecules and genes can be identified by the new omics technologies, including genome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolomics, and so on. Omics analyses have provided new insights and understanding into the relationships between plants and insects as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms of their interactions. Understanding the molecular interaction between plants and insects can help develop new and improved plant-resistant varieties and novel green control strategies.