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ViewAttendees 16

P-IE

Student Competition 10-Minute Paper

Grad 10-min: P-IE, Chemical Ecology 1

A root-feeding herbivore attenuates indirect plant defenses to avoid elevated predation risk

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Student Competition On-Demand
It has been well documented that herbivore feeding damage triggers the production of
herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs), which can protect plants directly by repelling
herbivores or indirectly by recruiting natural enemies that kill herbivores. However, our
understanding of root-produced HIPVs and their ecological functions in soil
environments remains limited. We investigated the role of HIPVs from roots of
cucumber plants (Cucumis sativus) in mediating foraging decisions of
entomopathogenic nematodes (Heterorhabditis bacteriophora; EPNs) and how these
volatiles change over the course of herbivory.

We found that feeding damage by cucumber beetle larvae (Acalymma vittatum) and
mechanical wounding induced similar blends volatiles in C. sativus roots after 24 hr,
compared to undamaged control plants. However, after 7 days of continuous damage,
A. vittatum herbivory suppressed root volatile production, while mechanical wounding
continued to induce higher volatile production. Furthermore, we found that EPNs were
attracted to cucumber root HIPVs after 24 hr of damage, but after 7 days of herbivory
EPNs did not differentiate between herbivore-damaged and control plants.

Taken together our results indicate that HIPVs from C. sativus roots serve as indirect
defenses against A. vittatum larvae through the recruitment of EPNs and that A.
vittatum larvae can overcome these defenses by suppressing HIPVs.