Transcriptomic analysis of the tomato plant response to Tuta absoluta herbivory

Tomato plants are submitted to a high diversity of herbivory pests, among them the leafminer Tuta absoluta, considered as one of the most important threat on the tomato worldwide production. In spite of its susceptibility to this pest, a better understanding of the tomato plant response to T. absoluta herbivory will help defining plant resistance traits and enlarging the range of possibilities for an efficient integrated pest management strategy. We analyzed the transcriptomic response in leaves of tomato (cv. Better Bush) submitted to the herbivory of T. absoluta larvae after 5h and 24h. Six tomato plants were infested with 6 larvae deposited on the three terminal leaflets of the 3rd true leaf and six control plants were subject to mock deposition. Two harvests were conducted after 5 h and 24 h of herbivory. At both harvest time, the infested leaflets from which the larvae have been removed (and the corresponding leaflets of the control plant) were sampled, immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80°C until RNA extraction. Twelve RNA bank were created corresponding to 4 conditions in triplicates (Tuta infested 5h and 24h; control 5h and 24h)