1State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China, E. Mail: lsspsl@mail.sysu.edu.cn, rlw2009@gmail.com.
*Correspondence author.
**Research Centre for Chemical Ecology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China.
β-Caryophyllene is an important volatile sesquiterpene of plants that may serve as allelochemical to influence the neighboring plant growth or as an indirect defence to attract natural herbivore enemies. A partial cDNA for β-caryophyllene synthase gene was isolated from the expressed sequence tag (EST) library of Mikania micrantha leaves. The full length cDNA of β-caryophyllene synthase from M. micrantha, designated as MmCS was obtained by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) methods. This MmCS cDNA is 1898 bp in full length and it encodes a putative protein of 547 amino acids. MmCS expression was significantly increased in M. micrantha leaves within 3-days after wounding during a 5-day interval following mechanical wounding. Bioassay showed that β-caryophyllene at ≥ 3 mg L−1 significantly inhibited the germination rates and seedling growth of Brassica campestris and Raphanus sativus. These results suggest that β-caryophyllene synthase and β-caryophyllene may play an important role in allelopathy for successful invasion of M. micrantha.
Allelopathy, Brassica campestris, β-caryophyllene, β-caryophyllene synthase gene, Mikania micrantha, Raphanus sativus, wounding
