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LUX ARRHYTHMO transcription factors regulate photoperiod-mediated resistance against common cutworm in soybean

Haiping Du1†, Aimin Wu1†, Xiangdong Kong2†, Chenyang Lin1†, Ke Zhang1, Guyue Zhang1, Jianhao Wang3, Haiyang Li4, Yuhang Zhang5, Yutong Liu1, Tiantian Bu6, Fanjiang Kong1,4, Qing Sang1*, Yuechen Bai2*, Hong Li4* and Zhihui Sun4*   

  1. 1. Guangdong Key Laboratory of Plant Adaptation and Molecular Design, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Editing, Innovative Center of Molecular Genetics and Evolution, School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China;
    2. State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Industrial Microorganisms, Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Plant Biology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China;
    3. Guangdong Key Laboratory for New Technology Research of Vegetables, Vegetable Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China;
    4. Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Precise Breeding of Future Crops, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for the Development Biology and Environmental Adaptation of Agricultural Organisms, South China Institute for Soybean Innovation Research, College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China;
    5. Institute of Nanfan & Seed Industry, Guangdong Academy of Science, Guangzhou 510316, China;
    6. State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Adaptation and Improvement, School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng 475001, China

    †These authors have contributed equally to this work.
    *Correspondences: Zhihui Sun (sunzh@scau.edu.cn; Dr. Sun is fully responsible for the distribution of all materials associated with this article); Qing Sang (sangqing@gzhu.edu.cn); Yuechen Bai (yuechenbai@fudan.edu.cn); Hong Li (lihong1005@scau.edu.cn)
  • Received:2026-03-25 Accepted:2026-06-24 Online:2026-07-14
  • Supported by:
    This work was funded by the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Project (Grant No.2024B1212060003 to F.K.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 32301750 to H.D. and 32401857 to Z.S.), and the Fundamental and Interdisciplinary Disciplines Breakthrough Plan of the Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. JYB2025XDXM705).

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Abstract: Soybean, as a typical photoperiod-sensitive short day crop, has been studied extensively in the photoperiodic regulation of flowering time since the 1920s. Photoperiod is known to affect plant resistance to pathogens; however, whether and how insect resistance also responds to photoperiodic regulation has received much less attention. Here, we show that soybean has stronger resistance to larvae of the leaf-feeding common cutworm under short day (SD) than long day (LD) photoperiod conditions. Metabolomic analysis indicates that leaf metabolites respond to both photoperiod and simulated larval herbivory. The circadian-clock genes LUX ARRHYTHMO 1/2 (LUX1 and LUX2) primarily exert positive insect-resistance functions under inductive SD conditions, and the lux1lux2 double mutant confers no obvious difference to larval fitness under LD and SD. LUXs directly bind to regulatory regions of JASMONATE ZIM-domain (JAZ) genes JAZ1 and JAZ2, which encode repressors of jasmonate defense signaling that are genetically downstream of LUX1/2. In contrast, JAZ1 and JAZ2 work as negative regulators under the LD photoperiod, wherein their repression by LUX1/2 is weaker. Together, our study broadens the fundamental understanding of how soybean responds to photoperiod and provides a theoretical basis for insect-resistant soybean breeding.

Key words: adaptation, common cutworm, common leafworm, Glycine max, JASMONATE ZIM-DOMAIN, photoperiod, Spodoptera litura

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