Transcriptional response to soybean aphid infestation in susceptible and resistant soybean plants

Soybean aphids are phloem-feeding pests that can cause significant yield losses in soybean plants. Soybean aphids thrive on susceptible soybean lines but not on resistant lines. We used microarrays to characterize the soybean plant's transcriptional defense against aphids in two related cultivars, a susceptible line and a resistant line with the Rag1 aphid-resistance gene. We measured trancript levels in leaves after one and seven days of aphid infestation. This was a full-factorial experiment with three factors: soybean variety (susceptible SD01-76R,resistant LD05-16060), aphid treatment (control, aphids), and infestation duration (1 day, 7 days). There were three replicates per treatment, for a total of 24 samples. The experiment was carried out in a growth chamber. At the V3 growth stage, thirty aphids were added to the third trifoliate leaves of the aphid-treated plants. Each plant had a net to prevent aphid movement among different plants. The aphids were removed prior to sampling.