On the canopy structure manipulation to buffer climate change effects on insect herbivore development

Insect pest development is often linearly related to air temperature, without taking into account the multiple interactions between the particular host plant and pest, the microclimatic conditions actually experienced by the insect, and the non-linear response of insect development rate to temperature. In this study, using an integrative biophysical model, we have investigated effects of both climatic and tree structure changes on the development of a phytophagous leaf mining moth (Phyllonorycter blancardella), taking into account the heterogeneous microclimatic conditions provided by its host plant, the domestic apple (Malus domestica), the larval body temperature rather than the ambient air temperature, and a non-linear development rate model. Hourly body temperature dynamics of larvae homogeneously dispersed in tree canopies were simulated from hourly meteorological conditions (medium IPCC climate change scenario) within the canopy of apple trees. To analyse the effect of tree architecture on leaf miner development, both pruned and unpruned trees, and one, two and three scaffold branched trees were used. Body temperature dynamics was used to compute larval development time and mortality following the non-linear developmental model for this insect. The results showed that tree pruning influences significantly larval development time and mortality. Nevertheless, the effects of manipulating tree structure on larval development and survival were relatively weak compared with the impact of chosen climate variations. This survey also showed that the variability in insect development time within a year and insect mortality change markedly with climatic variations, and highlights the importance of using non-linear rate curves and insect body temperatures instead of air temperature in forecasting models of climate-related insect pest outbreaks.     

Regional climate modulates the canopy mosaic of favourable and risky microclimates for insects

1. One major gap in our ability to predict the impacts of climate change is a quantitative analysis of temperatures experienced by organisms under natural conditions. We developed a framework to describe and quantify the impacts of local climate on the mosaic of microclimates and physiological states of insects within tree canopies. This approach was applied to a leaf mining moth feeding on apple leaf tissues. 2. Canopy geometry was explicitly considered by mapping the 3D position and orientation of more than 26 000 leaves in an apple tree. Four published models for canopy radiation interception, energy budget of leaves and mines, body temperature and developmental rate of the leaf miner were integrated. Model predictions were compared with actual microclimate temperatures. The biophysical model accurately predicted temperature within mines at different positions within the tree crown. 3. Field temperature measurements indicated that leaf and mine temperature patterns differ according to the regional climatic conditions (cloudy or sunny) and depending on their location within the canopy. Mines in the sun can be warmer than those in the shade by several degrees and the heterogeneity of mine temperature was incremented by 120%, compared with that of leaf temperature. 4. The integrated model was used to explore the impact of both warm and exceptionally hot climatic conditions recorded during a heat wave on the microclimate heterogeneity at canopy scale. During warm conditions, larvae in sunlight-exposed mines experienced nearly optimal growth conditions compared with those within shaded mines. The developmental rate was increased by almost 50% in the sunny microhabitat compared with the shaded location. Larvae, however, experienced optimal temperatures for their development inside shaded mines during extreme climatic conditions, whereas larvae in exposed mines were overheating, leading to major risks of mortality. 5. Tree canopies act as both magnifiers and reducers of the climatic regime experienced in open air outside canopies. Favourable and risky spots within the canopy do change as a function of the climatic conditions at the regional scale. The shifting nature of the mosaic of suitable and risky habitats may explain the observed uniform distribution of leaf miners within tree canopies.     

减弱UV-B辐射对烟草形态、光合及生理生化特性的影响

在地处低纬高原云南较高海拔烟区的通海县大田条件下,通过大棚覆盖不同透明膜的方式梯度减弱UV-B辐射,研究了外界环境30.39%(T1)、70.08%(T2)和75.74%(T3)强度的UV-B辐射对烟草品种K326形态、光响应特性和部分生理生化特征的影响。结果显示:减弱UV-B辐射促进了K326节间距和茎高的伸长,使叶片增大、变薄,尤以T2处理植株的叶片、茎围和节间距最大,而K326发育进程由T1至T3逐渐加快。在减弱UV-B辐射下,K326净光合速率(Pn)、最大净光合速率(Amax)和蒸腾速率(Tr)较高,但水分利用效率(WUE)、暗呼吸速率(Rd)、光补偿点(LCP)和光饱和点(LSP)较低。其中T1的Rd和LCP最低,并极大地降低了表观量子效率(AQY),T2的LSP最低而Pn最高,而T3的Amax、LCP和AQY最高。减弱UV-B辐射后烟叶叶绿素含量提高,而类黄酮、比叶重、类胡萝卜素含量和面积含水量下降,鲜重含水量和自然水分饱和亏却上升;T3处理下丙二醛含量最大,鲜重含水量和自然水分饱和亏则T2最大。结果表明,适当高强度的UV-B辐射对促进K326正常生长发育和提高其对UV-B辐射的适应性有重要作用。     

Nutritional ecology of insect–plant interactions: persistent handicaps and the need for innovative approaches

Quantifying the flow of matter and energy in food webs is indispensable when assessing the effects of increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide, ozone level and temperature as a result of global climate change. In insect nutritional ecology, quantification of digestive and metabolic efficiency is performed using gravimetric methods in all published cases. A few cases combined these methods with calorimetric and respirometric techniques. Since 1986, methodological pitfalls and sources of error inherent to applying gravimetry as the only method to construct nutrient budgets have been addressed in a number of papers without noticeable impact on subsequent research. Especially for insects feeding on living plant tissues, the gravimetric method has inherent handicaps as it can only be used with excised plant tissues and does not allow for the dynamics of plant metabolism. We discuss the major constraints of the gravimetric method as it pertains to the physiological processes of both the insect and plant. We apply a relationship between relative metabolic rate and relative growth rate of the insect for an analysis of the gravimetric literature. The analysis reveals that gravimetry has given rise to physiologically unlikely results for poikilothermic insects. This points to serious constraints on progress in this field. We identify plant respiration as the major source of error in gravimetric studies. We establish that no single study has, thus far, determined the metabolic efficiency of a herbivore feeding on a photosynthetically active plant with its phyllosphere microclimate. We argue that a quantitative understanding of the ecophysiology and nutritional ecology of insect–plant interactions must rely on the adoption of a combination of existing and complementary methods such as the double labelled water method and infrared gas analysis.     

Pyrazophos: a fungicide with insecticidal properties including activity against chrysanthemum leaf miner (Phytomyza syngenesiae) (Agromyzidae)

Pyrazophos was more effective than dioxanthion against chrysanthemum leaf miner (Phytomyza syngenesiae Hardy) when applied as a mist onto bed-grown plants irrespective of the stage of development of the pest. When pyrazophos was applied at the feeding mark stage no eggs developed but when it was applied at the young mine, mature mine or pupal stages 3–5%, 3-1% or 45-5% reached adulthood. Pyrazophos applied every 17-5 days kept damage levels acceptably low. The potential of pyrazophos within an integrated control programme for chrysanthemum is discussed.     

Determining Plant – Leaf Miner – Parasitoid Interactions: A DNA Barcoding Approach

A major challenge in network ecology is to describe the full-range of species interactions in a community to create highly-resolved food-webs. We developed a molecular approach based on DNA full barcoding and mini-barcoding to describe difficult to observe plant – leaf miner – parasitoid interactions, consisting of animals commonly regarded as agricultural pests and their natural enemies. We tested the ability of universal primers to amplify the remaining DNA inside leaf miner mines after the emergence of the insect. We compared the results of a) morphological identification of adult specimens; b) identification based on the shape of the mines; c) the COI Mini-barcode (130 bp) and d) the COI full barcode (658 bp) fragments to accurately identify the leaf-miner species. We used the molecular approach to build and analyse a tri-partite ecological network of plant – leaf miner – parasitoid interactions. We were able to detect the DNA of leaf-mining insects within their feeding mines on a range of host plants using mini-barcoding primers: 6% for the leaves collected empty and 33% success after we observed the emergence of the leaf miner. We suggest that the low amplification success of leaf mines collected empty was mainly due to the time since the adult emerged and discuss methodological improvements. Nevertheless our approach provided new species-interaction data for the ecological network. We found that the 130 bp fragment is variable enough to identify all the species included in this study. Both COI fragments reveal that some leaf miner species could be composed of cryptic species. The network built using the molecular approach was more accurate in describing tri-partite interactions compared with traditional approaches based on morphological criteria.     

No evidence for enemy release during range expansion of an evergreen tree in northern Europe

Plant distributions are dynamic but the role of plant-insect interactions in controlling range dynamics is not well understood. Enemy release, for example could facilitate plant range expansion under climate change. We conducted a transplant experiment with the evergreen tree Ilex aquifolium L. in both the historical and the expanding range in Denmark to study possible effects of geographical position, small-scale distance, and plant types on presence and performance of the monophagous insect leaf-miner Phytomyza ilicis Curtis. The leaf miner was present in the entire range of I. aquifolium in Denmark, and there were no differences in emergence success depending on geographical position. Small-scale distance to existing adult plants influenced the activity of the insect on the transplants, and oviposition density was negatively correlated with distance to adult plants. Plant type had an effect on leaf miner feeding, oviposition and mining, and the native provenance of I. aquifolium supported higher densities than two cultivars. There was no evidence that enemy release facilitates the current range expansion of I. aquifolium.     

A new stem-borer of the genus Bucculatrix (Lepidoptera: Bucculatricidae) from Japan, with description of the life history

A new species of bucculaticid moth, Bucculatrix hamaboella sp. nov. (Host plant: Hibiscus hamabo , Malvaceae) is described from Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. The feeding habit of the new species is unique in that: (i) the young larva is a leaf miner forming a long red linear mine but in the later instars the larva becomes a stem borer; (ii) later instar larvae undergo double molts within a cocoonet (molting cocoon); and (iii) penultimate and final instars appear on the surface of the leaf as non-feeding stages. The external non-feeding larvae of B. hamaboella undergoing double molts within one cocoonet are considered to be an abbreviated form of the external feeding instars of other bucculatricids typically making first and second cocoonets, undergoing a single molt within each cocoonet. On the basis of morphological characters, this species is related to the species of Sections I and II (Host: Asteraceae) of Braun (1963), rather than to the species of Section VIII (Host: Malvaceae).     

Leaf respiration is differentially affected by leaf vs. stand-level night-time warming

Plant respiration is an important physiological process in the global carbon cycle serving as a major carbon flux from the biosphere to the atmosphere. Respiration is sensitive to temperature providing a link between environmental variability, climate change and the global carbon cycle. We measured leaf respiration in Populus deltoides after manipulating the air temperature surrounding part of a single leaf, and compared this to the temperature response of the same leaves after manipulating the temperature of the stand. The short‐term temperature response of respiration (Q₁₀– change in the respiration rate with a 10 °C increase in leaf temperature) was 1.7 when the leaf temperature was manipulated, but 2.1 when the stand‐level temperature was changed. As a result, total night‐time carbon release during the five‐day experiment was 21% lower when using the Q₁₀ estimates from the tradition leaf manipulation compared to the stand‐level manipulation. We conclude that the temperature response of leaf respiration is related to whole plant carbon and energy demands, and that appropriate experimental procedures are required in examining respiratory CO₂ release under variable temperature conditions.     

Factors underlying the late seasonal appearance of the lepidopterous leaf-mining guild on oak

Abstract. 1. Most lepidopterous leaf mining species found on the oak Quercus robur in Britain develop in summer. At this time of year, externally feeding caterpillars remove little leaf area since most of these free living folivores are predominantly spring feeders.
2. I forced Phyllonorycter harrisella (L.) miners to oviposit in spring, then exposed developing larvae to a wide range of leaf damage levels.
3. Leaf miner survivorship and mean female pupal weight were significantly greater in the experimental spring generation on undamaged oak leaves, this being when oak foliage is of the highest nutritional quality.
4. Leaf miner survivorship in all generations is correlated with natural leaf damage levels. Experimental leaf damage also reduces miner survivorship.
5. Leaf damage reduces miner survivorship by increasing the probability of larval death due to wound induced responses.
6. The role of asymmetrical competitive interactions between caterpillars and leaf-miners in determining the late seasonal appearance of miners is discussed. It is suggested that wound induced responses may play an important part in the structuring of phytophagous insect communities.     

Summer drought alters plant-mediated competition between foliar- and root-feeding insects

Summer droughts are predicted to increase in severity and frequency in the United Kingdom, due to climate change. Few studies have addressed the impacts of drought on interactions between species, and the majority have focussed on increases in CO₂ concentration and changes in temperature. Here, the effect of experimental summer drought on the strength of the plant‐mediated interaction between leaf‐mining Stephensia brunnichella larvae and root‐chewing Agriotes larvae was investigated. Agriotes larvae reduced the abundance and performance of S. brunnichella feeding on a mutual host plant, Clinopodium vulgare, as well as the rate of parasitism of the leaf‐miner. The interaction did not, however, occur on plants subjected to a severe drought treatment, which were reduced in size. Changes to summer rainfall, due to climate change, may therefore reduce the occurrence of plant‐mediated interactions between insect herbivores.     

Effects of leaf and sap feeding insects on photosynthetic rates of goldenrod

Summary Herbivory can alter the balance between sources and sinks within a plant, and changes in the source-sink ratio often lead to changes in plant photosynthetic rates. We investigated how feeding by three insect herbivores affected photosynthetic rates and growth of goldenrod (Solidago altissima). One, a phloem-sap feeding aphid (Uroleucon caligatum), creates an additional sink, and the other two, a leaf-chewing beetle (Trirhabda sp.) and a xylem-sap feeding spittlebug (Philaenus spumarius) both reduce source supply by decreasing leaf area. Plants were grown outside in large pots and insects were placed on them at predetermined densities, with undamaged plants included as controls. All insects were removed after a 12-day feeding period. We measured photosynthetic rates both of damaged leaves and of undamaged leaves that were produced after insect removal. Photosynthetic rates per unit area of damaged leaves were reduced by spittlebug feeding, but not by beetle or aphid feeding. Conductance of spittlebugdamaged leaves did not differ from controls, but internal carbon dioxide concentrations were increased. These results indicate that spittlebug feeding does not cause stomatal closure, but impairs fixation within the leaf. Effects of spittlebug feeding on photosynthetic rates persisted after the insects were removed from the plants. Photosynthetic rates per unit area of leaves produced after insect removal on spittlegug-damaged plants were lower than control levels, even though the measurements were taken 12 days after insect removal. The measurement leaf on spittlebugdamaged plants was reduced in area by 27% relative to the controls, but specific leaf area (leaf area/leaf weight) was increased by 18%. Because of the shift in specific leaf area, photosynthetic rates were also examined per unit leaf weight, and when this was done there were no significant differences between control and spittlebug-damaged plants. Beetle and aphid feeding had no effects on the photosynthetic rate of the leaves produced after insect removal. Plant relative growth rates (in terms of height) were reduced by spittlebugs during the period that the insects were feeding on the plants. Relative growth rates of spittlebug-damaged plants were increased above control levels after insect removal, but these plants were still shorter than controls 17 days after insect removal. Beetles and aphids did not affect plant relative growth rates or plant height. Feeding by both spittlebugs and beetles reduced leaf area, and the effect of the spittlebug was more severe than that of the beetle. These results show that effects of herbivory on photosynthetic rates cannot be predicted simply by considering changes in the source-sink ratio, and that spittlebug feeding is more damaging to the host plant than beetle or aphid feeding.     

Leaf mechanics and herbivory defence: How tough tissue along the leaf body deters growing insect herbivores

Research on herbivory defence often focuses on leaf chemistry but less on how plant mechanical properties like leaf veins deter herbivores. Herbivores often eat tough, complex plant tissue, yet how mechanical properties affect feeding performance as the consumer grows is unclear. We measured the toughness and strength of five types of leaf tissue – the midrib, the secondary and marginal veins and the lamina inside (inner) and outside (outer) the marginal vein – in mature Eucalyptus viminalis and Eucalyptus ovata leaves with punch tests. Leaf veins were, on average, 6.2 times tougher than lamina. Marginal veins were uniformly strong and tough along the leaf body, while midribs were less strong and secondary veins less tough toward leaf tips. We correlated the force required to puncture leaf tissue with the feeding performance of a chewing insect herbivore (the spiny leaf insect, Extatosoma tiaratum (Phasmida)) across four instar stages to explore the role of tough leaf veins as potential feeding barriers. Larvae more often ate less tough leaf tips and tougher tissue as they grew. However, younger larvae were capable of penetrating the tough marginal vein when starved. We suggest tough leaf veins and consumer position along the leaf body influence insect herbivore feeding performance over their lifetime.     

Elevated CO2 lowers relative and absolute herbivore density across all species of a scrub-oak forest

The unabated increase in global atmospheric CO(2) is expected to induce physiological changes in plants, including reduced foliar nitrogen, which are likely to affect herbivore densities. This study employs a field-based CO(2 )enrichment experiment at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, to examine plant-herbivore (insect) interactions inside eight open-topped chambers with elevated CO(2) (710 ppm) and eight control chambers with ambient CO(2). In elevated CO(2) we found decreased herbivore densities per 100 leaves, especially of leaf miners, across all five plant species we examined: the oak trees Quercus myrtifolia, Q. geminata, and Q. chapmanii, the nitrogen-fixing vine Galactia elliottii and the shrub Vaccinium myrsinites. Both direct and indirect effects of lowered plant nitrogen may influence this decrease in herbivore densities. Direct effects of lowered nitrogen resulted in increased host-plant related death and an increase in compensatory feeding: per capita herbivore leaf consumption in elevated CO(2) was higher than in ambient CO(2). Indirectly, compensatory feeding may have prolonged herbivore development and increased exposure to natural enemies. For all leaf miners we examined, mortality from natural enemies increased in elevated CO(2). These increases in host-plant induced mortality and in attack rates by natural enemies decreased leaf miner survivorship, causing a reduction in leaf miner density per 100 leaves. Despite increased leaf production in elevated CO(2) from the carbon fertilization effect, absolute herbivore abundance per chamber was also reduced in elevated CO(2). Because insects cause premature leaf abscission, we also thought that leaf abscission would be decreased in elevated CO(2). However, for all plant species, leaf abscission was increased in elevated CO(2), suggesting a direct effect of CO(2) on leaf abscission that outweighs the indirect effects of reduced insect densities on leaf abscission.     

Elevational turnover in the composition of leaf miners and their interactions with host plants in Australian subtropical rainforest

Leaf miners are specialist herbivorous insects that are potentially vulnerable to environmental change because of their dependency on particular host plants. Little, however, is known about how climate affects the distribution of leaf miner communities and their interactions with host plants. Elevational gradients are useful tools for understanding how ecological communities respond to local clines in climate. Given that plant communities are known to undergo elevational turnover in response to changes in climatic conditions, we expect that leaf miner species will also change with elevation. We repeatedly hand collected leaf miners along three elevational gradients in subtropical rainforest in eastern Australia. Individual leaf miners were counted and identified to species, and their host plants were recorded. We tested if leaf miner species richness and the number of unique interactions among leaf miner and host plant species were affected by elevation. We also tested if the composition of leaf miner species and the composition of interactions between leaf miners and host plants showed a relationship with elevation. The rarefied number of unique leaf miner–host plant interactions significantly decreased with elevation, with a slight peak at approx. 700 m a.s.l., while neither rarefied or observed species richness (species density) of leaf miners nor observed numbers of unique interactions (interaction density) were significantly affected by elevation. The composition of leaf miner species and the composition of leaf miner–host plant interactions (occurrence of pairwise interactions) were significantly related to elevation. Elevational turnover in leaf miner species composition indicated that different species varied in their response to changes in biotic and/or abiotic conditions imposed by increasing elevation. Through our analyses, we identified four leaf miner species that may be locally vulnerable to climate change, as a result of their restricted elevational distribution and level of host specificity.     

Adaptive Radiation in Insects and Plants: Time and Opportunity

SYNOPSIS. Insects and their hostplants represent the major partof terrestrial diversity, yet we are just beginning to understandwhy there are so very many species. By far the most influentialmodel of insect/plant diversification has been Ehrlich and Raven's(1964) hypothesis of insect/plant coevolution. While the coevolutionmodel was based on macroevolutionary patterns in plant defensesand hostplant affiliations, most of the subsequent work hasbeen on its possible ecological and genetic mechanisms, withrelatively little systematic scrutiny of the evolutionary patternsEhrlich and Raven described. We explore the possible roles insect/plantinteractions may play in the long-term evolution of insect andplant lineages, and review some of the evidence on whether ornot insects and plants have exerted reciprocal influences oneach other's diversification. Insects and plants have diversified over roughly the same timeintervals, and many insect host/affiliations are evolutionarilyconserved, thus reflecting long/term, phylogenetic history.Rather than accumulating herbivores at a rate proportional totheir geographic area of distribution or biomass, some plantgroups pose apparent chemical barriers to potential herbivorecolonists, and seem accessible to relatively few insect lineages,possibly preadapted by use of chemically similar or relatedhostplants. Evolutionary innovations in plant defenses and ininsect feeding habits seem to have spurred their respectiveadaptive radiations, thus ecological opportunity may influencelong-term evolutionary success. The greater diversity of insectsand plants in the tropics, compared to the temperate zone, probablyreflects the greater age of tropical habitats as well as climaticbarriers that limit successful invasion of the temperate zoneto just those primitively tropical groups able to evolve strategiesfor both overwintering and use of temperate resources. Thoughevidence is still sparse, successful invasion of the temperatezone may promote subsequent radiations of both insects and plants. We conclude that much of the available evidence from systematicsis consistent with Ehrlich and Raven's suggestion that muchof insect and plant diversification has been spurred by a seriesof ecological opportunities over evolutionary time.     

The impact of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on tomato plant resistance against Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) in greenhouse conditions

The symbiotic relationship between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) improves plant growth and increases its resistance to pests and diseases. Mycorrhizal fungi are among the specialized fungi associated with the rhizosphere and are completely dependent on plant organic carbon. In this research tomato, Solanum lycopersicum L. was used as the host plant to evaluate the interaction effects between inoculation of tomato plant with AMF and feeding of tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick). In addition, plant growth parameters and growth rate of insect were assessed. The mycorrhizal treatment included a mixture of four fungal species (Funneliformis mosseae, Rhizophagus intraradices, R. irregularis and Glomus iranicus). The results of the experiment showed that tomato plant roots were well colonized (66.29%) by AMF and there was a significant mutual relationship between the insects feeding on the plants and the fungi. Feeding by the insects on plants inoculated with the fungus increased percentage of colonization by AMF in plants infested with the insect as compared to the control plants. The results also indicated that growth parameters and phosphorus content of the plants inoculated with fungi significantly increased compared to the control group. Moreover, significantly lower growth rate and consumption index observed in the T. absoluta larvae were fed on the leaves of plants treated with AMF compared to leaves of plants not inoculated with AMF.     

Interactive effects of elevated CO2 and temperature on the leaf-miner Dialectica scalariella Zeller (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) in Paterson's Curse, Echium plantagineum (Boraginaceae)

Doubling of the current atmospheric CO₂ concentration, and an increase in global mean annual temperatures of 1.5–6 °C, have been predicted to occur by the end of this century. Whilst the separate effects of CO₂ and temperature on plant–insect interactions have been examined in a number of studies, few have investigated their combined impact. We carried out a factorial experiment to explore the effect of a doubling of CO₂ concentration and a 3 °C temperature increase on the development of a complete generation of the leaf‐miner, Dialectica scalariella, in the host plant Paterson's Curse, Echium plantagineum. Elevated CO₂ increased biomass, reduced leaf N and increased C:N ratios in the host plants. Leaf thickness also increased under elevated CO₂, but only in the high‐temperature treatment. Female D. scalariella did not discriminate between plants grown at the different CO₂ levels when ovipositing, despite the reduction in foliage quality under elevated CO₂. Overall, the negative response of D. scalariella to elevated CO₂ was greater than for many species of free‐living insects, presumably because of the limited mobility imposed by the leaf‐mining habit. Development was accelerated at the high temperature and slowed under elevated CO₂. The net result was a reduction in development time of ～14 days in the elevated CO₂/high temperature treatment, compared to the ambient CO₂/low temperature treatment. Larval survivorship and adult moth weight were both affected by a significant interaction between CO₂ and temperature. At the low temperature, CO₂ had little effect on survivorship, but at the high temperature, survivorship was significantly reduced under elevated CO₂. Similarly, elevated CO₂ had a stronger negative effect on adult moth weight when combined with the high‐temperature treatment. A possible explanation for these results is that the high temperature accelerated insect development to such an extent that the larvae did not have sufficient feeding time to compensate for the poorer quality of the foliage. The frequency with which interactions between CO₂ and temperature affected both plant and insect performance in this study highlights the need for caution when predicting the effects of future climate change on plant–insect interactions from single‐factor experiments.     

Plant-mediated effects on an insect–pathogen interaction vary with intraspecific genetic variation in plant defences

Baculoviruses are food-borne microbial pathogens that are ingested by insects on contaminated foliage. Oxidation of plant-derived phenolics, activated by insect feeding, can directly interfere with infections in the gut. Since phenolic oxidation is an important component of plant resistance against insects, baculoviruses are suggested to be incompatible with plant defences. However, plants among and within species invest differently in a myriad of chemical and physical defences. Therefore, we hypothesized that among eight soybean genotypes, some genotypes would be able to maintain both high resistance against an insect pest and high efficacy of a baculovirus. Soybean constitutive (non-induced) and jasmonic acid (JA)-induced (anti-herbivore response) resistance was measured against the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (weight gain, leaf consumption and utilization). Indicators of phenolic oxidation were measured as foliar phenolic content and peroxidase activity. Levels of armyworm mortality inflicted by baculovirus (SfMNPV) did not vary among soybean genotypes when the virus was ingested with non-induced foliage. Ingestion of the virus on JA-induced foliage reduced armyworm mortality, relative to non-induced foliage, on some soybean genotypes. Baculovirus efficacy was lower when ingested with foliage that contained higher phenolic content and defensive properties that reduced armyworm weight gain and leaf utilization. However, soybean genotypes that defended the plant by reducing consumption rate and strongly deterred feeding upon JA-induction did not reduce baculovirus efficacy, indicating that these defences may be more compatible with baculoviruses to maximize plant protection. Differential compatibility of defence traits with the third trophic level highlights an important cost/trade-off associated with plant defence strategies.