Influence of oxylipin metabolism in plants on insect resistance and drought tolerance

Alpha-dioxygenases are a family of fatty acid-metabolizing enzymes in plants that are known to contribute resistance against chewing insects and pathogens as well as to plant development. Here, we demonstrate that a member of this family, DOX1, contributes to aphid resistance in tomato as well as in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.  In addition, we have used high-throughput phenotyping to exploe the influence of DOX1 on drought tloerance.  Our results indicate that this gene influences abiotic stress responses as well as resistance to biotic stressors; our data also indicate the power of high-throughput phenotyping to quantify water status and other traits not always evident to the naked eye.