10.5061/DRYAD.29PB4
Ode, Paul J.
Colorado State University
Harvey, Jeffrey A.
Nederlands Instituut voor Ecologie
Riechelt, Michael
Wageningen University & Research
Gershenzon, Jonathan
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
Gols, Rieta
Wageningen University & Research
Data from:Differential induction of plant chemical defenses by parasitized
and unparasitized herbivores: consequences for reciprocal, multitrophic
interactions
Dryad
dataset
2015
multitrophic interactions
plant chemical defenses
Brassica oleracea
Trichoplusia ni
Copidosoma floridanum
Parasitoids
2015-12-11T17:10:55Z
2015-12-11T17:10:55Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.03076
73519 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Insect parasitoids can play ecologically important roles in virtually all
terrestrial plant–insect herbivore interactions, yet whether parasitoids
alter the defensive traits that underlie interactions between plants and
their herbivores remains a largely unexplored question. Here, we examined
the reciprocal trophic interactions among populations of the wild cabbage
Brassica oleracea that vary greatly in their production of defensive
secondary compounds – glucosinolates (GSs), a generalist herbivore,
Trichoplusia ni, and its polyembryonic parasitoid Copidosoma floridanum.
In a greenhouse environment, plants were exposed to either healthy
(unparasitized), parasitized, or no herbivores. Feeding damage by
herbivores induced higher levels of the indole GSs, glucobrassicin and
neoglucobrassicin, but not any of the other measured GSs. Herbivores
parasitized by C. floridanum induced cabbage plants to produce 1.5 times
more indole GSs than levels induced by healthy T. ni and five times more
than uninduced plants. As a gregarious endoparasitoid, C. floridanum
causes its host T. ni to feed more than unparasitized herbivores resulting
in increased induction of indole GSs. In turn, herbivore fitness
parameters (including differential effects on male and female
contributions to lifetime fecundity in the herbivore) were negatively
correlated with the aliphatic GSs, sinigrin and gluconapin, whereas
parasitoid fitness parameters were negatively correlated with the indole
GSs, glucobrassicin and neoglucobrassicin. That herbivores and their
parasitoids appear to be affected by different sets of GSs was unexpected
given the intimate developmental associations between host and parasitoid.
This study is the first to demonstrate that parasitoids, through
increasing feeding by their herbivorous hosts, can induce higher levels of
non-volatile plant chemical defenses. While parasitoids are widely
recognized to be ubiquitous in most terrestrial insect herbivore
communities, their role in influencing plant–insect herbivore
relationships is still vastly underappreciated.
Ode et al. OIK-03076 dataExcel file containing results of a greenhouse
study of the effects of parasitized and unparasitized herbivores on
glucosinolate concentrations of four different cabbage populations (3 wild
and 1 cultivar). Data on the correlations between glucosinolate profiles
on herbivore and parasitoid fitness parameters are also given.