PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Aishwarya Korgaonkar
AU  - Clair Han
AU  - Andrew L. Lemire
AU  - Igor Siwanowicz
AU  - Djawed Bennouna
AU  - Rachel Kopec
AU  - Peter Andolfatto
AU  - Shuji Shigenobu
AU  - David L. Stern
TI  - A novel family of secreted proteins linked to plant gall development
AID  - 10.1101/2020.10.28.359562
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.10.28.359562
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/10/28/2020.10.28.359562.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/10/28/2020.10.28.359562.full
AB  - In an elaborate form of inter-species exploitation, many insects hijack plant development to induce galls—novel plant ‘organs’ resulting from dramatic reprograming of plant cell biology. Insects induce galls by introducing unidentified molecules into plants. Here we identify an aphid gene, determinant of gall color (dgc), that is genetically associated with variation in a gall phenotype, providing the first example of an insect gene implicated in gall development. Dgc encodes a BICYCLE protein, a new family of secreted proteins. Bicycle genes are strongly expressed specifically in galling aphid salivary glands, suggesting they control many aspects of gall development. Bicycle genes have experienced unusually strong diversifying selection, consistent with their potential role controlling gall development in a molecular arms race between aphids and their host plants.One Sentence Summary Aphid bicycle genes, which encode diverse secreted proteins, contribute to plant gall development.Competing Interest StatementHHMI has filed a provisional patent, number 63/092,942, for the inventors AK and DLS covering unique aphid polypeptides for use in modifying plants.