Interspecific New Rice for Africa (NERICA) varieties have been recently developed and used in Sub‐Saharan Africa but herbivore resistance properties of these plants remain poorly understood. Here we report that, compared to a local Japanese cultivar Nipponbare, NERICA 1, 4 and 10 are significantly more damaged by insect herbivores in the paddy fields. In contrast to high levels of leaf damage from rice skippers and grasshoppers, constitutive and induced volatile organic compounds for indirect plant defense were higher or similar in NERICAs and Nipponbare. Accumulation of direct defense secondary metabolites, momilactones A and B, and p‐coumaroylputrescine (CoP) was reduced in NERICAs, while feruloylputrescine accumulated at similar levels in all varieties. Finally, we found that Nipponbare leaves were covered with sharp nonglandular trichomes impregnated with silicon but comparable defense structures were virtually absent in herbivory‐prone NERICA plants. As damage to the larval gut membranes by Nipponbare silicified trichomes that pass intact through the insect digestive system, occurs, and larval performance is enhanced by trichome removal from otherwise chemically defended Nipponbare plants, we propose that silicified trichomes work as an important defense mechanism of rice against chewing insect herbivores.

中文翻译：

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Nonglandular硅化毛状体对于水稻防御咀嚼草食动物至关重要。

非洲种间新稻（NERICA）品种最近得到开发，并在撒哈拉以南非洲使用，但对这些植物的草食动物抗性特性仍知之甚少。在这里，我们报告说，与当地的日本品种Nipponbare相比，稻田中的昆虫食草动物对NERICA 1、4和10的损害明显更多。与稻草和蚱hopper对叶子的高危害相比，用于间接植物防御的本构和诱导挥发性有机化合物在NERICA和Nipponbare中较高或相似。直接防御次级代谢产物，内酯A和B以及p的积累NERICAs中的香豆酰氨基谷氨酸（CoP）含量降低，而所有品种中阿魏酰氨基谷氨酸的积累水平相似。最后，我们发现日本晴叶上覆盖着尖锐的非腺毛状体，并充满了硅，但是在易食草的NERICA植物中几乎没有类似的防御结构。由于通过完整通过昆虫消化系统的日本晴硅化毛状体对幼虫肠膜的损害发生，并且通过从其他化学防御的日本晴植株中去除毛状体而增强了幼虫性能，我们建议硅化毛状体作为水稻的重要防御机制反对咀嚼昆虫食草动物。