Open Access

ARTICLE

Differential Gene Expression and Metabolic Changes in Soybean Leaves Triggered by Caterpillar Chewing Sound Signals

Lucas Leal Lima¹, Angélica Souza Gouveia¹, Analice Martins Duarte¹, Filipe Schitini Salgado², Nathália Silva Oliveira¹, Monique da Silva Bonjour¹, Iana Pedro da Silva Quadros¹, Maria Goreti Almeida Oliveira¹, Flavia Maria Silva Carmo², Elizabeth Pacheco Batista Fontes¹, Humberto Josué de Oliveira Ramos^1,3,*

1 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), BIOAGRO/INCT-IPP, Viçosa, 36570-900, MG, Brazil
2 Department of General Biology, Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa, 36570-900, MG, Brazil
3 Center for Biomolecules Analysis, NuBioMol, Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa, 36570-900, MG, Brazil

* Corresponding Author: Humberto Josué de Oliveira Ramos. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Plant and Environments)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2025, 94(6), 1787-1810. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2025.064068

Received 04 February 2025; Accepted 19 May 2025; Issue published 27 June 2025

Abstract

Sound contains mechanical signals that can promote physiological and biochemical changes in plants. Insects produce different sounds in the environment, which may be relevant to plant behavior. Thus, we evaluated whether signaling cascades are regulated differently by ecological sounds and whether they trigger molecular responses following those produced by herbivorous insects. Soybean plants were treated with two different sounds: chewing herbivore and forest ambient. The responses were markedly distinct, indicating that sound signals may also trigger specific cascades. Enzymes involved in oxidative metabolism were responsive to both sounds, while salicylic acid (SA) was responsive only to the chewing sound. In contrast, lipoxygenase (LOX) activity and jasmonic acid (JA) did not change. Soybean Kunitz trypsin inhibitor gene (SKTI) and Bowman-Birk (BBI) genes, encoding for protease inhibitors, were induced by chewing sound. Chewing sound-induced high expression of the pathogenesis-related protein (PR1) gene, confirming the activation of SA-dependent cascades. In contrast, the sound treatments promoted modifications in different branches of the phenylpropanoid pathway, highlighting a tendency for increased flavonols for plants under chewing sounds. Accordingly, chewing sounds induced pathogenesis-related protein (PR10/Bet v-1) and gmFLS1 flavonol synthase (FLS1) genes involved in flavonoid biosynthesis and flavonols. Finally, our results propose that plants may recognize herbivores by their chewing sound and that different ecological sounds can trigger distinct signaling cascades.

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Keywords

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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