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Host plant defense signaling in response to a coevolved herbivore combats introduced herbivore attack

Defense-free space resulting from coevolutionarily naïve host plants recently has been implicated as a factor facilitating invasion success of some insect species. Host plants, however, may not be entirely defenseless against novel herbivore threats. Volatile chemical-mediated defense signaling, whi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Woodard, Anastasia M, Ervin, Gary N, Marsico, Travis D
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3399170/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22837849
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.224
Descripción
Sumario:Defense-free space resulting from coevolutionarily naïve host plants recently has been implicated as a factor facilitating invasion success of some insect species. Host plants, however, may not be entirely defenseless against novel herbivore threats. Volatile chemical-mediated defense signaling, which allows plants to mount specific, rapid, and intense responses, may play a role in systems experiencing novel threats. Here we investigate defense responses of host plants to a native and exotic herbivore and show that (1) host plants defend more effectively against the coevolved herbivore, (2) plants can be induced to defend against a newly-associated herbivore when in proximity to plants actively defending against the coevolved species, and (3) these defenses affect larval performance. These findings highlight the importance of coevolved herbivore-specific defenses and suggest that naïveté or defense limitations can be overcome via defense signaling. Determining how these findings apply across various host–herbivore systems is critical to understand mechanisms of successful herbivore invasion.