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204 results for “plant defenses”
The fate of a plant defense mutualism in a warming world at the University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI (2024-2026)
Mutualisms are vital to plant survival and reproduction, but climate warming has the potential to alter these interactions. One such mutualism involves foliar mites, which provide plants with defense by consuming harmful fungi. In exchange, plants offer protective structures on their leaves called domatia. Both mite and fungal communities are potentially temperature-sensitive, and warming may shift community composition, potentially altering trophic interactions between botch groups. However, the specific changes in mite and fungal community composition and their implications for plant-mite mutualism and plant performance remain unclear. To investigate the responses of both of these communities to warming, and the effects these changes will have on plants, I conducted a nested factorial field experiment with 96 P. serotina seedlings at the University of Michigan Biological Station. Plants were warmed using open top chambers, nested within which were fully factorial manipulations of the mite and fungal communities. Each group was manipulated using either pruning tar to exclude mites or Quilt fungicide to exclude fungi.
Data describing how four different levels of induced plant defenses change cannibalism among larval lepidopterans and alter consumption of plant tissue by larval lepidopterans.
A dataset comprised of three experiments: Experiment 1. Data describing how four different levels of induced plant defenses change cannibalism among larval lepidopterans and alter consumption of plant tissue by larval lepidopterans. The experiment was conducted at UW-Madison in Birge Hall. Experiment 2. Data describing how two levels of induced plant defenses and two levels of food provision (presence or absence of dead conspecifics) changes cannibalism, herbivory, and growth among larval lepidopterans. Experiment 3. Data describing mass loss of tomato leaves that were clipped and allowed to dry for two days. These data are to determine estimates of natural (autogenic) weight loss due to evaporation for comparison of weight loss due to herbivory and evaporation as part of feeding trials with armyworms (see other two associated datasets in this series). The experiment was conducted at the Department of Biology at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Data and R code used in: Plant geographic distribution influences chemical defenses in native and introduced Plantago lanceolata populations
<p>Plants growing outside their native range may be confronted by new regimes of herbivory, but how this affects plant chemical defense profiles has rarely been studied. Using <em>Plantago lanceolata</em> as a model species, we investigated whether introduced populations show significant differences from native populations in several growth and chemical defense traits. <em>Plantago lanceolata </em>(ribwort plantain) is an herbaceous plant species native to Europe and Western Asia that has been introduced to numerous countries worldwide. We sampled seeds from nine native and ten introduced populations that covered a broad geographic and environmental range and performed a common garden experiment in a greenhouse, in which we infested half of the plants in each population with caterpillars of the generalist herbivore <em>Spodoptera littoralis</em>. We then measured size-related and resource-allocation traits as well as the levels of constitutive and induced chemical defense compounds in roots and shoots of <em>P. lanceolata</em>. When we considered the environmental characteristics of the site of origin, our results revealed that populations from introduced ranges were characterized by an increase of chemical defense compounds without compromising plant biomass. The concentrations of iridoid glycosides and verbascoside, the major anti-herbivore defense compounds of <em>P. lanceolata</em>,<em> </em>were higher in introduced populations than in native populations. In addition, introduced populations exhibited greater rates of herbivore-induced volatile organic compound emission and diversity, and similar chemical diversity based on untargeted analyses of leaf methanol extracts. In general, the geographic origin of the populations had a significant influence on morphological and chemical plant traits, suggesting that <em>P. lanceolata</em> populations are not only adapted to different environments in their native range but also in their introduced range.</p>
Data from: Evidence for reductions in physical and chemical plant defense traits in island flora
<p>Reduced defense against large herbivores has been suggested to be part of the "island syndrome" in plants. However, empirical evidence for this pattern is mixed. In this paper, we present two studies that compare putative physical and chemical defense traits from plants on the California Channel Islands and nearby mainland based on sampling of both field and common garden plants. In the first study, we focus on five pairs of woody shrubs from three island and three mainland locations and find evidence for increased leaf area, decreased marginal leaf spines, and decreased concentrations of cyanogenic glycosides in island plants. We observed similar increases in leaf area and decreases in defense traits when comparing island and mainland genotypes grown together in botanic gardens, suggesting that trait differences are not solely driven by abiotic differences between island and mainland sites. In the second study, we conducted a common garden experiment with a perennial herb—<em>Stachys bullata </em>(Lamiaceae)—collected from two island and four mainland locations. Compared to their mainland relatives, island genotypes show highly reduced glandular trichomes and a nearly 100-fold reduction in mono- and sesquiterpene compounds from leaf surfaces. Island genotypes also had significantly higher specific leaf area, somewhat lower rates of gas exchange, and greater aboveground biomass than mainland genotypes across two years of study, potentially reflecting a broader shift in growth habit. Together, our results provide evidence for reduced expression of putative defense traits in island plants, though these results may reflect adaptation to both biotic (i.e., the historical absence of large herbivores) and climatic conditions on islands.</p>
Complex plant quality - microbiota - population interactions modulate the response of a specialist herbivore to the defense of its host plant.
<p>1. Many specialist herbivores have evolved strategies to cope with plant defenses, with gut microbiota potentially participating to such adaptations.</p> <p>2. In this study we assessed whether the history of plant use (population origin) and microbiota may interact with plant defense adaptation.</p> <p>3. We tested whether microbiota enhance the performance of <em>Melitaea cinxia </em>larvae on their host plant, <em>Plantago lanceolata</em> and increase their ability to cope the defensive compounds, iridoid glycosides (IGs).</p> <p>3. The gut microbiota was significantly affected by both larval population origin and host plant IG level. Contrary to our prediction, impoverishing the microbiota with antibiotic treatment did not reduce larval performance.</p> <p>5. As expected for this specialized insect herbivore, sequestration of one of IGs was higher in larvae fed with plants producing higher concentration of IGs. These larvae also showed metabolic signature of intoxication (<em>i.e. </em>decrease in Lysine levels). However, intoxication on highly defended plants was only observed when larvae with history of poorly defended plants were simultaneously treated with antibiotics.</p> <p>6. Our results suggest that both adaptation and microbiota contribute to the metabolic response of herbivores to plant defense though complex interactions.</p>
Insecticide resistance triggers a reduction of virulence to host-plant defenses in the brown planthopper
<p>This dataset contains R scripts to analyze the virulence of resistance rice cultivars and to draw figures. Data contains the LD<sub>50</sub> values of imidacloprid, virulence test and figure data. This study was supported by grants-in-aid from Japan's National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) project 315 and the NARO Innovation Project 2017 for the NARO.</p>
Data from: Landscape variation in defense traits along gradients of multiple resources in a tropical savanna plant
<p><span>Many plant species are widely distributed and consequently are exposed to multiple abiotic factors and diverse herbivores, each of which may distinctly affect the magnitude of different defense traits.</span><span> </span><span>Alternative theories for optimal allocation to plant defense traits predict both positive and negative associations between magnitude of defense and resource availability. These predictions may apply even within species. </span><span>This </span><span>suggests potential for a single species' patterns of association of defense traits and resources to vary with both the type of defense and identity of resource, but relatively few studies have explored intraspecific variation in multiple defense traits along several resource gradients simultaneously. </span><span>In order to address this gap, especially in an ecosystem dominated by large mammalian herbivores, we assessed relationships between multiple resources (rainfall, soil N, and soil P) and plant defense traits (prickle density, phenolics, and lignin content) using a widely distributed tropical savanna herb, <em>Solanum</em> <em>incanum</em>, growing in naturally occurring resource gradients within the Serengeti National Park. </span>We found substantial intraspecific variation in all three defense traits across sites (n =43). Variation in prickle density was positively associated with rainfall and soil P, but not soil N. In contrast to prickle density, phenolics and lignin were uncorrelated with all three resource gradients. This independent association of soil P with a carbon-based defense, prickle density, suggests potential for resources that are not components of defenses to influence allocation to defense traits. Such influence may reflect association between resource and herbivore abundance and/or preference. These varied patterns in resource-defense associations further emphasize the tremendous variation in anti-herbivore traits which may be influenced by different plant resources and highlight the need to consider multiple resource gradients in understanding evolution of plant traits.</p>
Root mutualistic fungi tailor the induction of direct and indirect antiherbivore defense strategies to enhance plant resistance
<p>GCMS raw data in netCDF format for the manuscript "Root mutualistic fungi tailor the induction of direct and indirect antiherbivore defense strategies to enhance plant resistance" </p> <p>Mutualistic microbes can trigger plant defenses against herbivores. Little is known about how microbes orchestrate multiple induced defense strategies that may trade-off against each other. We investigated how two root mutualistic fungi trigger simultaneously direct and indirect antiherbivore-defenses, and the regulatory mechanisms involved</p>
Data from: Evidence for reductions in physical and chemical plant defense traits in island flora
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Data and R code used in: Plant geographic distribution influences chemical defenses in native and introduced Plantago lanceolata populations
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Data from: Landscape variation in defense traits along gradients of multiple resources in a tropical savanna plant
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Mean plant toxicity modulates the effects of plant defense variability
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Challenges in the early ontogeny of a mutualistic plant: Resource availability and plant defense in juvenile Cecropia ant-plants
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Trichoderma atroviride P1 Colonization of Tomato Plants Enhances Both Direct and Indirect Defense Barriers Against Insects
<p><strong>FIGURE 1</strong> </p> <p>Survival rate of <em>S. littoralis</em> larvae, from 3rd instar (time 0) to pupation, reared on tomato leaves obtained from plants treated with <em>Trichoderma atroviride</em> P1 or untreated control plants. Asterisk indicates that the two survival curves are significantly different (LogRank test, <em>P</em> = 0.0027).</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>FIGURE 3</strong> </p> <p>Survival of <em>Macrosiphum euphorbiae</em> reared on tomato plants treated with <em>T. atroviride</em> P1 or untreated control plants. Asterisk indicates that the two survival curves are significantly different (LogRank test, <em>P</em> = 0.0012).</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>FIGURE 4</strong> </p> <p>Flight behavior of <em>Aphidius ervi</em> females (%) toward tomato plants inoculated with <em>T. atroviride</em> P1 and untreated controls. Asterisk indicates a significant difference, assigned by <em>G</em> test for independence (<em>P</em> < 0.001).</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>TABLE 1</strong></p> <p>GC-MS detection of VOCs released by tomato plants obtained from seeds untreated (Control) and treated with <em>Trichoderma atroviride</em> strain P1.</p> <p> </p>
Data from: The genetic architecture of plant defense tradeoffs in a common monkeyflower
<p>Determining how adaptive combinations of traits arose requires understanding the prevalence and scope of genetic constraints. Frequently observed phenotypic correlations between plant growth, defenses, and/or reproductive timing have led researchers to suggest that pleiotropy or strong genetic linkage between variants affecting independent traits is pervasive. Alternatively, these correlations could arise via independent mutations in different genes for each trait and extensive correlational selection. Here we evaluate these alternatives by conducting a QTL mapping experiment involving a cross between two populations of common monkeyflower (<em>Mimulus guttatus</em>) that differ in growth rate as well as total concentration and arsenal composition of plant defense compounds, phenylpropanoid glycosides (PPGs). We find no evidence that pleiotropy underlies correlations between defense and growth rate. However, there is a strong genetic correlation between levels of total PPGs and flowering time that is largely attributable to a single shared QTL. While this result suggests a role for pleiotropy/close linkage, several other QTLs also contribute to variation in total PPGs. Additionally, divergent PPG arsenals are influenced by a number of smaller-effect QTLs that each underlie variation in one or two PPGs. This result indicates that chemical defense arsenals can be finely-adapted to biotic environments despite sharing a common biochemical precursor. Together, our results show correlations between defense and life history traits are influenced by pleiotropy or genetic linkage, but genetic constraints may have limited impact on future evolutionary responses, as a substantial proportion of variation in each trait is controlled by independent loci.</p>
Data from: Induced phenological avoidance: a neglected defense mechanism against seed predation in plants
<p>1. Flowering phenology is an important life history trait affecting plant reproductive performance and is influenced by various abiotic and biotic factors. Pre-dispersal seed predation and pollination are expected to impose counteracting selection pressure on flowering phenology, with pre-dispersal seed predation expected to favor off-peak flowering and pollination to favor synchronous flowering. <br> 2. Here we studied the effect of pre-dispersal seed predation by the beetle Byturus ochraceus, a specialist seed herbivore, on the flowering phenology of Geum urbanum. This forest understorey plant species is self-pollinating, so that the influence of seed predation can be studied independent from pollination. We measured in detail the timing and predation rate of individual flowers during two consecutive years in more than 60 individuals. We tested the hypotheses that pre-dispersal seed predation exerts selection for within-season compensatory flowering as well as for induced phenological avoidance in the following season.<br> 3. We found no indication for compensatory flowering within a growing season, but plants that experienced predation shifted their flowers to the end of the flowering season the subsequent year. This induced phenological avoidance points to a plastic response to pre-dispersal seed predation that may be adaptive. Importantly, the delay in flower production came at a cost, since flowers later in the season had a reduced seed output, presumably because of increasing light limitation following forest canopy closure. <br> 4. Synthesis: Herbivory by specialist enemies can cause serious fitness decline in hosts. We here show that induced shifts in phenology can form an important defense strategy against pre-dispersal seed predation. The induced mismatches between herbivore and host phenology are anticipated to be adaptive when herbivory is predictable across successive flowering periods.</p>
Data from: Population variation, environmental gradients, and the evolutionary ecology of plant defense against herbivory
A central tenet of plant defense theory is that adaptation to the abiotic environment sets the template for defense strategies, imposing a tradeoff between plant growth and defense. Yet, this tradeoff, commonly found among species occupying divergent resource environments, may not occur across populations of single species. We hypothesized that more favorable climates and higher levels of herbivory would lead to increases in growth and defense across plant populations. We evaluated whether plant growth and defense traits co-varied across 18 populations of showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) inhabiting an east-west climate gradient, spanning 25° of longitude. A suite of traits impacting defense (e.g., latex, cardenolides), growth (e.g., size), or both (e.g., SLA, trichomes) were measured in natural populations and in a common garden, allowing us to evaluate plastic and genetically based variation in these traits. In natural populations, herbivore pressure increased towards warmer sites with longer growing seasons. Growth and defense traits showed strong clinal patterns and were positively correlated. In a common garden, clines with climatic origin were only recapitulated for defense traits. Correlations between growth and defense traits were also weaker and more negative in the common garden compared to the natural populations. Thus, our data suggest that climatically favorable sites likely facilitate the evolution of greater defense at minimal costs to growth, likely because of increased resource acquisition.
Data from: Plasticity of plant defense and its evolutionary implications in wild populations of Boechera stricta
Phenotypic plasticity is thought to impact evolutionary trajectories by shifting trait values in a direction that is either favored by natural selection ("adaptive plasticity") or disfavored ("nonadaptive" plasticity). However, it is unclear how commonly each of these types of plasticity occurs in natural populations. To answer this question, we measured glucosinolate defensive chemistry and reproductive fitness in over 1,500 individuals of the wild perennial mustard Boechera stricta, planted in four common gardens across central Idaho, USA. Glucosinolate profiles—including total glucosinolate concentration as well as the relative abundances and overall diversity of different compounds—were strongly plastic both among habitats and within habitats. Patterns of glucosinolate plasticity varied greatly among genotypes. Plasticity among sites was predicted to affect fitness in 27.1% of cases; more often than expected by chance, glucosinolate plasticity increased rather than decreased relative fitness. In contrast, we found no evidence for within-habitat selection on glucosinolate reaction norm slopes (i.e., plasticity along a continuous environmental gradient). Together, our results indicate that glucosinolate plasticity may improve the ability of B. stricta populations to persist after migration to new habitats.
Data from: Herbivores and plant defenses affect selection on plant reproductive traits more strongly than pollinators
Pollinators and herbivores can both affect the evolutionary diversification of plant reproductive traits. However, plant defenses frequently alter antagonistic and mutualistic interactions and therefore variation in plant defenses may alter patterns of herbivore- and pollinator-mediated selection on plant traits. We tested this hypothesis by conducting a common garden field experiment using 50 clonal genotypes of white clover (Trifolium repens) that varied in a Mendelian inherited chemical antiherbivore defense—the production of hydrogen cyanide (HCN). To evaluate whether plant defenses alter herbivore- and/or pollinator-mediated selection, we factorially crossed chemical defense (25 cyanogenic and 25 acyanogenic genotypes), herbivore damage (herbivore suppression) and pollination (hand-pollination). We found that herbivores weakened selection for increased inflorescence production, suggesting that large displays are costly in the presence of herbivores. In addition, herbivores weakened selection on flower size but only among acyanogenic plants, suggesting that plant defenses reduce the strength of herbivore-mediated selection. Pollinators did not independently affect selection on any trait, although pollinators weakened selection for later flowering among cyanogenic plants. Overall, cyanogenic plant defenses consistently increased the strength of positive directional selection on reproductive traits. Herbivores and pollinators both strengthened and weakened the strength of selection on reproductive traits, although herbivores imposed ~2.7× stronger selection than pollinators across all traits. Contrary to the view that pollinators are the most important agents of selection on reproductive traits, our data show that selection on reproductive traits is driven primarily by variation in herbivory and plant defenses in this system.
A non-vector herbivore indirectly increases the transmission of a vector-borne virus by reducing plant chemical defenses
<ol> <li><span><span>Vectors and viruses </span><span><span>exist</span></span><span> in communities consisting of many interacting species. Although the cascading effects of predators or parasitoids on disease spread via direct effects on vectors have been investigated, little is known about the effects of other free-living species in communities on the transmission of vector-borne viruses via </span><span><span>indirect (host-plant mediated) effects</span></span><span> on vectors.</span></span></li> <li><span><span>In the present study, we used a food web consisting of tomato plants (</span><i><span>Solanum lycopersicum</span></i><span>), two tomato herbivores (the vector whitefly,</span><i><span> Bemisia tabaci</span></i><span>, and the non-vector two-spotted spider mite, </span><i><span>Tetranychus urticae</span></i><span>), and a whitefly-vectored plant virus (</span><i><span>Tomato yellow leaf curl virus</span></i><span>, TYLCV) to study how </span><i><span>T. urticae</span></i><span> may affect TYLCV transmission by </span><i><span>B. tabaci</span></i><span> via </span><span><span>host-plant</span></span><span> </span><span><span>mediated effects</span></span><span><span> on </span><i><span>B. tabaci</span></i></span><span>.</span></span></li> <li><span><span>We found that </span><i><span>T. urticae</span></i><span> infestation promoted </span><i><span>B. tabaci</span></i><span> feeding and thereby increased TYLCV transmission to tomato plants. These increases were </span><span><span>associated with</span></span><span> </span><i><span>T. urticae</span></i><span>-induced reductions in two flavonoids (rutin and quercetin trisaccharide) of tomato plants. Elevation of rutin and quercetin trisaccharide levels in </span><i><span>T. urticae</span></i><span>-infested plants via exogenous stem applications reduced </span><i><span>B. tabaci</span></i><span> feeding and TYLCV transmission. Therefore, suppression of these flavonoids by </span><i><span>T. urticae</span></i><span> infestation was </span><span><span>the most likely explanation for the observed changes in </span></span><i><span><span>B. tabaci</span></span></i><span><span> feeding behavior and TYLCV transmission</span></span><span>.</span></span></li> <li> <span>Our results show that by reducing flavonoids in tomato plants, a non-vector herbivore can indirectly increase the transmission of a vector-borne plant virus. These findings indicate that species that are far removed from the direct vector–virus interactions can indirectly affect vector–borne virus transmission by altering the </span><span><span>chemical defenses</span></span><span> of the shared host plant.</span> </li> </ol>
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