When the aphids are feeding on a non-host or a resistant plant, they ingest phloem sap initially at normal rates, but will subsequently stop feeding, withdraw their stylet and leave the plant (
Kloft, 1977), suggesting that aphids tend to move away from the plant possibly because the phloem sap is nutritionally unfavorable. Studies with Arabidopsis indicate that the sap contains a factor(s) that is detrimental to the insect. Petiole exudates, which are enriched in phloem sap, collected from leaves of wild type Arabidopsis, when added to a synthetic diet had a detrimental effect on GPA population (
Louis et al., 2010a,
2010b). As mentioned later, the
pad4 and the
mpl1 mutant, both of which are deficient in this antibiotic activity, exhibited lowered resistance to GPA (
Louis et al., 2010a,
2010b). By contrast, insect populations were smaller on mutant plants that constitutively accumulate high levels of this activity, for example the
ssi2 (
suppressor of SA-insensitivity2) mutant, than on the wild type plant (Louis
et al.,
2010b). However, despite the presence of this detrimental activity in petiole exudates of wild type plants, GPA manages to successfully colonize Arabidopsis, suggesting that over time it can overcome this detrimental factor(s), presumably by either detoxifying it
in planta, and/or suppressing its production by the host plant, or activating mechanisms that inactivate this factor in the insect body. Previous studies have indicated that aphid infestation results in alterations in the composition of phloem sap (
Sandström et al., 2000). Indeed, petiole exudates collected from GPA-infested leaves of wild type Arabidopsis lacked this inhibitory activity (
Nalam et al., 2012). Quite to the contrary, these exudates now contained an activity that promoted GPA proliferation on an artificial diet, thus suggesting that aphids infestation results in the destruction or suppression of this inhibitory activity.
Several stress and defense associated proteins are present in the sap of plants (
Walz et al., 2004;
Gaupels et al., 2008). The PP2-A1 (Phloem Protein2-A1; At4g19840) in Arabidopsis, which is associated with the sieve elements (
Beneteau et al., 2010), possesses lectin activity (
Dinant et al., 2003;
Beneteau et al., 2010). Lectins are proteins that have an affinity for carbohydrates and have insecticidal activities, presumably due to interference with processes in the aphid gut (
Carlini and Grosside-Sa, 2002;
Vasconcelos and Oliveira, 2004). This insecticidal effect of lectins has been successfully used to engineer plants with enhanced resistance against several aphids. For example, potato plants engineered to express high levels of snowdrop lectin were more resistant to GPA (
Gatehouse et al., 1996). Recombinant PP2-A1 protein when added to a synthetic diet, also exhibited inhibitory activity against GPA (
Beneteau et al., 2010). Furthermore, GPA had difficulty feeding from sieve elements of transgenic Arabidopsis plants that overexpressed PP2-A1 (
Zhang et al., 2011), thus indicating that
in planta produced PP2-A1 is also detrimental to GPA.
Phloem proteins are also involved in occlusion of sieve elements upon wounding. Plants also deposit callose in sieve elements penetrated by stylets, thereby preventing the prolonged feeding of phloem-feeding insects. In plants, callose synthesis is Ca
2+-dependent (
King and Zeevaart, 1974). It has been shown that sieve tube occlusion upon wounding in legumes involves the dispersion of spindle like proteins (forisomes) with the aid of Ca
2+ influx to the injury site (
Knoblauch et al., 2001;
Thorpe et al., 2010). Occlusion of sieve elements by forisome plugging resulted in a change in feeding behavior of aphids on
Vicia faba (
Will et al., 2007). As a counter-mechanism, the Ca
2+-binding proteins present in the aphid saliva have been suggested to participate in reverse phloem occlusion, which allows the aphids to feed continuously from the phloem sap (
Will et al., 2007). In Arabidopsis, cabbage aphid infestation upregulated the expression of
CALLOSE SYNTHASE (
CALS1; At1g05570) gene (
Kuśnierczyk et al., 2008), thus suggesting that aphid infestation induces the synthesis of callose by stimulating expression of plant genes involved in callose biosynthesis. Similarly, infestation by sliverleaf whitefly (
B. tabaci) and brown leafhopper (
Nilaparvata lugens), on Arabidopsis and rice, respectively, induced the accumulation of callose near the vascular tissues (
Kempema et al., 2007;
Hao et al., 2008).
Phloem sap also contains defensive compounds, such as gluconiolates and non-protein amino acids that impact Arabidopsis interaction with aphid. These are discussed in more detail below.
Glucosinolates—a Brassicaceae-specific Chemical Defense
Plants in the
Brassicaceae family, which includes
Arabidopsis thaliana, accumulate glucosinolates, a family of secondary metabolites that are sources of thioacyanates and other breakdown products that are toxic to some aphids (
Rask et al., 2000;
Halkier and Gershenzon, 2006). Levy
et al., (
2005) showed that the expression level of the
IQD1 (At3g09710) gene, which encodes a transcription factor that is responsible for glucosinolate accumulation, impacts host plant choice by GPA. Another study showed that the fecundity of both generalist (GPA) and specialist aphid (cabbage aphid) were higher on Arabidopsis
coi1 mutant that contained lower amount of glucosinolates than the wild type plant (
Mewis et al., 2005). Differences have been observed in the profile of glucosinolates in aphid-infested compared to uninfested Arabidopsis. For example, although the total glucosinolate content does not change in GPA-infested (
Kim and Jander, 2007,
Louis et al., 2010a), compared to uninfested plants, the GPA-infested plants contain higher levels of indole glucosinolates. Kim
et al., (
2008) reported that GPA population size was smaller on the Arabidopsis
atr1D (At5g60890) mutant plant, which accumulates elevated levels of indole glusocinolates, thus suggesting that indole glucosinolates are detrimental to GPA (
Kim et al., 2008).
Glucosinolates themselves are not insecticidal. However, when acted upon by myrosinases, glucosinolates produce toxic thiocyanates and other breakdown products that act as defensive compounds against insects (
Chew, 1988;
Louda and Mole 1991;
Rask et al., 2000). In Arabidopsis, β-thioglucoside glucohydrolases encoded by
TGG1 and
TGG2 (At5g25980 and At5g26000) contribute to the majority of the myrosinase activity (
Barth and Jander, 2006). However, both GPA and cabbage aphid populations were unaffected on Arabidopsis
tgg1 and
tgg2 single and the
ttg1 ttg2 double mutant plants, compared to the wild type plant, suggesting that aphids evade the production of toxic thiocyanates or modulate the activity of enzymes that synthesize these thiocyanates (
Barth and Jander, 2006). Instead, Kim
et al., (
2008) showed that the adverse effect of glucosinolates on aphid performance correlated with the accumulation of indole glucosinolate breakdown products in the insect body, indicating that aphids consume glucosinolates produced by the host plant. In particular, diindolylmethylcysteines and other amino acid conjugates, which form after indole glucosinolate breakdown during aphid feeding from Arabidopsis, reduce aphid reproduction on artificial diets (
Kim et al., 2008). Further studies identified the indol-3-ylmethyl glucosinolate -derived 4-methoxyindol-3-ylmethyl glucosinolate and 1-methoxyindol-3-yl-methyl glucosinolate as strong deterrents of GPA proliferation (
Kim and Jander, 2007;
Pfalz et al., 2009). GPA reproduction was improved on
cyp81F2 (At5g57220) mutants, which are defective in the production of 4-methoxyindol-3-ylmethyl glucosinolate (
Pfalz et al., 2009;
De Vos and Jander, 2009). Unlike in the generalist GPA, the effect of glucosinolate breakdown products against the specialist cabbage aphids have not been reported. It is possible that the specialist aphids are able to evade, suppress and/or adapt to these glucosinolate breakdown products as opposed to the generalist aphids. Readers are directed to some excellent reviews that have summarized glucosinolate biosynthesis and metabolism, and its role in plant defense (
Bednarek et al., 2009;
Wittstock and Burow, 2010).
Non-protein Amino Acids
Plants produce several non-protein amino acids that serve as intermediates in the synthesis of primary metabolites. In addition, these compounds are also reported to have defense related functions against insects (Rosenthal, 1991). For instance, L-canavanine, an L-arginine analog, is a major storage compound in legumes and also has insecticidal allelochemical properties (
Rosenthal, 2001).

-acetylornithine has been identified as a new class of defense related compound in Arabidopsis (
Adio et al., 2011). This non-protein amino acid has been identified in phloem sap collected from methyl jasmonate-treated Arabidopsis. The Arabidopsis
NATA1 gene (At2g39030), which encodes a protein with N-acetyltransferase activity, is involved in the biosynthesis of

-acetylornithine and is expressed in the phloemassociated tissues. Expression of the
NATA1 gene was induced and

-acetylornithine content was higher in GPA infested Arabidopsis compared to uninfested plants. Furthermore, GPA population on aphid diet containing

-acetylornithine was significantly reduced, suggesting that this compound has a direct toxic and/or deterrent effect on GPA (
Adio et al., 2011). Transient expression of
NATA1 in tobacco significantly reduced GPA population size as compared to the vector control plants (
Adio et al., 2011). Resistance in these experiments correlated with the level of

-acetylornithine. Whether

-acetylornithine has any effect on specialist cabbage aphids, is not known. However, by contrast to aphids, although
NATA1 expression and

-acetylornithine accumulation were also induced in response to infestation by chewing herbivores, the
nata1-1 mutation did not affect
Pieris rapae (white cabbage butterfly) and
Plutella xylostella (diamondback moth) caterpillar growth, suggesting that

-acetylornithine accumulation is either not important or not sufficient to deter chewing insects. A recent review by Huang
et al. (
2011) summarizes the role of non-protein amino acids in plant defense against various insect pests.