ArticlePlant, cell & environment2026
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Enhance Growth and Defense Against Spodoptera litura in Lactuca sativa.
Article in Plant, cell & environment, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are common root-associated endophytic fungi that enhance host plant growth and induce resistance against various stresses. However, their role in mediating insect resistance in vegetable crops remains poorly understood. In this study, the effects of AM fungi inoculation on growth and insect resistance against Spodoptera litura in four representative vegetable species (tomato, pepper, cucumber, and lettuce) were investigated. Lettuce (Lactuca sativa), which exhibited the strongest mycorrhiza-induced resistance, was subsequently selected for detailed mechanistic investigation through physiological and biochemical measurements, phytohormone profiling, gene expression analysis, and targeted metabolomics. AM fungi-inoculated lettuce exhibits both elevated growth and pronounced insect resistance. During the early stages of herbivory, AM fungi rapidly activates the jasmonic acid (JA) signaling pathway, leading to increased levels of 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid (OPDA), JA, and bioactive jasmonyl-isoleucine (JA-Ile), as well as the upregulation of key JA biosynthetic gene LsOPR3 and the defense-related gene LsPI. Mycorrhizal inoculation also mitigates lipid peroxidation induced by insect feeding and enhances the activities of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase and catalase) in leaves. Targeted metabolomic analysis reveales that AM fungi significantly altered secondary metabolism in lettuce, particularly promoting the accumulation of L-tryptophan (L-Trp) and its derivatives (such as methyl indole-3-acetate and indole-3-carboxaldehyde) under insect stress, alongside notable increases in phenylpropanoid and flavonoid pathway metabolites. Exogenous application assays further confirmed that JA treatment strongly induced the expression of insect defense-related polyphenol oxidase genes (LsPPO3, LsPPO4) and enhanced resistance but suppressed plant growth. In contrast, L-Trp treatment elevated LsPPO3 and LsPPO4 expression while maintaining biomass accumulation. These results show that AM fungi inoculation promotes lettuce growth and insect resistance through elevating JA signaling and L-tryptophan accumulation. Moreover, this study emphasizes the potential role of L-Trp in improving vegetable crops biomass and insect defense.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.