Herbivory, induced resistance, and interplant signal transfer in Alnus glutinosa

By T. Tscharntke, S. Thiessen, R. Dolch, W. Boland. 2001

200 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Field experiments with manually defoliated black alders ( Alnus glutinosa ) showed that defoliation affected herbivory by the major alder antagonist, the leaf beetle Agelastica alni . Herbivore damage increased with increasing distance to the defoliated tree, suggesting induced resistance not only on the damaged tree, but also on the neighbouring trees. The beetles also avoided leaves from the nearest neighbours for both feeding and oviposition in a laboratory assay, so the alders showed interplant resistance transfer. Natural enemies did not appear to shape this pattern, because the number of entomophagous arthropods and predator–prey ratios even increased with increasing distance to the defoliated tree. The numbers of all specialist, but not the generalist, herbivore species paralleled the increase in the attack of the specialist A. alni , supporting the view that specialists are more affected by plant resistance than generalists. Mechanisms causing this pattern, found in the field, were studied in more detail using biochemical analyses and further bioassays. Responses of alder leaves to herbivory of A. alni were shown to include ethylene emission and the release of a blend of volatiles with mono-, sesqui- and homoterpenes. Changes in leaf chemistry after herbivory included increases in the activity of oxidative enzymes (polyphenoloxidase, PPO, lipoxygenase, LOX, and peroxidase, POD) and proteinase inhibitors (PIs), and an increase in the phenolic contents of the leaves. Quantification of the endogenous jasmonic acid (JA) showed the activation of the octadecanoid pathway following herbivory. The active components in mediating a possible interplant signal transfer via airborne volatiles may have included ethylene, β -ocimene, 4,8-dimethylnona-1,3,7-triene (DMNT), and 4,8,12-trimethyltrideca-1,3,7,11-tetraene (TMTT). The incubation with volatiles resulted in an increase in the activity of catalase (CAT) and PIs (after MeJA application) and in an increase in the content of phenolics and PI activity (after ethylene application). Further evidence that airborne interplant communication may be important in the response of alder trees to beetle attack came from container experiments. In airtight chambers, unattacked leaves significantly increased the activity of proteinase inhibitors when they were associated with leaves previously attacked by beetle larvae. In conclusion, field experiments, bioassays in the laboratory as well as biochemical analyses suggest the existence of interplant resistance transfer in A. glutinosa , with airborne volatiles as a possible mechanism. However, the relative importance of airborne and possible soil-borne signals as well as unknown effects of intensified nutrient absorption of defoliated trees, possibly reducing foliage quality of undamaged neighbours, remains to be shown.

Subfields: Ecology, Insect Science, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1e6a8ccb084c25f68760af8262ce70ca6a53f829

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In Ecology

1. M. Maffei
2. Martin Heil
3. R. Karban
4. Felix L. Wäckers
5. Almo Farina
6. J. Maron
7. M. Dicke
8. E. Haukioja

In Insect Science

1. Martin Heil
2. R. Karban
3. M. Dicke
4. M. Maffei
5. T. C. Turlings
6. Christian Kost
7. Felix L. Wäckers
8. J. Bruin

In Plant Science

1. Martin Heil
2. M. Maffei
3. R. Karban
4. M. Dicke
5. T. C. Turlings
6. Christian Kost
7. Felix L. Wäckers
8. J. Bruin

Citations in the corpus

• Sites of synthesis, biochemistry and functional role of plant volatiles (2010, background): “(Degenhardt and Gershenzon, 2000; Tscharntke et al., 2001; Kappers et al., 2005; Vuorinen et al., 2007; Carroll et al., 2008; Mantyla et al., 2008; Arimura et al., 2009; Kigathi et al., 2009; Joo et al., 2010) Active components in mediating a possible interplant signal transfer.”
• Recruitment of predators and parasitoids by herbivore-injured plants (2004, background): “This herbivory also increased the activity of oxidative enzymes and proteinase inhibitors (Tscharntke et al., 2001).”
• Herbivore damage to sagebrush induces resistance in wild tobacco: evidence for eavesdropping between plants (2003, background): “…trees growing close to conspecific neighbors that had been mechanically defoliated (20% leaf area removed) suffered less leaf damage by alder leaf beetles during the subsequent growing season than controls near neighbors that were not defoliated (Dolch and Tscharntke 2000, Tscharntke et al. 2001).”
• Induction of the activities of antioxidative enzymes and the levels of malondialdehyde in cucumber seedlings as a consequence of Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) infestation (2008, background): “POD is known to exhibit increases in activity in many plants due to herbivore damage (Cipollini 1997; Tscharntke et al. 2001; Allison and Schultz 2004).”
• Herbivore‐induced plant volatiles induce an indirect defence in neighbouring plants (2006, result): “Because previous studies (e.g. Bate & Rothstein 1998; Arimura et al. 2000a; Tscharntke et al. 2001) have often been criticised for using airtight chambers, which may alter the physiological status of the enclosed plants by causing a shortage of CO2 (Baldwin et al. 2002; Dicke et al. 2003), we…”
• The Eco-field Hypothesis: Toward a Cognitive Landscape (2005, background): “the intraspecific transfer of signals in Alnus glutinosa (Tscharntke et al. 2001), the symbiotic or parasitic relationships (e.”
• Involvement and interaction of various signaling compounds on the plant metabolic events during defense response, resistance to stress factors, formation of secondary metabolites and their molecular aspects (2002, unknown): “Quantification of the endogenous jasmonic acid showed the activa- tion of the octadecanoid pathway following herbivory (Tscharntke et al., 2001).”
• Plant defenses and population fluctuations of forest defoliators : mechanism-based scenarios (2005, background): “Very few results are available towards this end, especially in woody plants (but see Constabel et al. 2000, Tscharntke et al. 2001).”
• Epirrita autumnata induced VOC emission of silver birch differ from emission induced by leaf fungal pathogen (2007, background): “However, Tscharntke et al. (2001) did not measure VOC emission of the studied branches.”
• Chemical information transfer between plants: back to the future (2001, background): “Field data on communication between alder trees (Dolch and Tscharntke, 2000) are followed up by laboratory investigations on the underlying mechanism (Tscharntke et al., 2001).”