The transcriptional landscape of insect galls: psyllid (Hemiptera) gall formation in Hawaiian Metrosideros polymorpha (Myrtaceae)

BACKGROUND: Recent studies show that galling Hymenoptera and Diptera are able to synthesize the plant hormone indole-3-acetic acid (auxin) from tryptophan and that plant response to insect-produced auxin is implicated in gall formation. We examined the leaf transcriptome of galled and ungalled leaves of individuals of the Hawaiian endemic plant Metrosideros polymorpha (Myrtaceae) subject to infestation by psyllid (Hemiptera) gall-makers in the genus Trioza (Triozidae). RESULTS: Transcript libraries were sequenced using Illumina technology and the reads assembled de novo into contigs. Functional identification of contigs followed a two-step procedure, first identifying contigs by comparison to the completely sequenced genome of the related Eucalyptus, followed by identifying the equivalent Arabidopsis gene using a pre-computed mapping between Eucalyptus and Arabidopsis genes. This allowed us to use the rich functional annotation of the Arabidopsis genome to assess the transcriptional landscape of galling in Metrosideros. Comparing galled and ungalled leaves, we find a highly significant enrichment of expressed genes with a gene ontology (GO) annotation to auxin response in the former. One gene consistently expressed in all galled trees examined but not detected in any libraries from ungalled leaves was the Metrosideros version of SMALL AUXIN UPREGULATED (SAUR) 67 which appears to be a marker for leaf-galling in Metrosideros. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that an auxin response is involved in galling by Metrosideros psyllids. The possibility should therefore be considered that psyllids (like other insects examined) are able to synthesize auxin.