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Data on Herbivore Performance and Plant Herbivore Damage Identify the Same Plant Traits as the Key Drivers of Plant–Herbivore Interaction

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Our aim was to determine the effects of a free-living leaf-chewing generalist caterpillar on leaf damage of several different closely related plant species. Herbivore performance and leaf damage were affected by similar plant traits. Traits related to higher caterpillar mortality (hi...

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Autores principales: Münzbergová, Zuzana, Skuhrovec, Jiří
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7762045/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33291794
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11120865
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author Münzbergová, Zuzana
Skuhrovec, Jiří
author_facet Münzbergová, Zuzana
Skuhrovec, Jiří
author_sort Münzbergová, Zuzana
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Our aim was to determine the effects of a free-living leaf-chewing generalist caterpillar on leaf damage of several different closely related plant species. Herbivore performance and leaf damage were affected by similar plant traits. Traits related to higher caterpillar mortality (higher leaf dissection, number, length and toughness of spines and lower trichome density) also led to higher leaf damage. Both types of data may be used to identify the key traits driving the interactions. On the other hand, we confirmed that it is very important to carefully distinguish whether the data on leaf damage were obtained in the field or in controlled feeding experiments, as the patterns expected in the two environments go in opposite directions. ABSTRACT: Data on plant herbivore damage as well as on herbivore performance have been previously used to identify key plant traits driving plant–herbivore interactions. The extent to which the two approaches lead to similar conclusions remains to be explored. We determined the effect of a free-living leaf-chewing generalist caterpillar, Spodoptera littoralis (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), on leaf damage of 24 closely related plant species from the Carduoideae subfamily and the effect of these plant species on caterpillar growth. We used a wide range of physical defense leaf traits and leaf nutrient contents as the plant traits. Herbivore performance and leaf damage were affected by similar plant traits. Traits related to higher caterpillar mortality (higher leaf dissection, number, length and toughness of spines and lower trichome density) also led to higher leaf damage. This fits with the fact that each caterpillar was feeding on a single plant and, thus, had to consume more biomass of the less suitable plants to obtain the same amount of nutrients. The key plant traits driving plant–herbivore interactions identified based on data on herbivore performance largely corresponded to the traits identified as important based on data on leaf damage. This suggests that both types of data may be used to identify the key plant traits determining plant–herbivore interactions. It is, however, important to carefully distinguish whether the data on leaf damage were obtained in the field or in a controlled feeding experiment, as the patterns expected in the two environments may go in opposite directions.
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spelling pubmed-77620452020-12-26 Data on Herbivore Performance and Plant Herbivore Damage Identify the Same Plant Traits as the Key Drivers of Plant–Herbivore Interaction Münzbergová, Zuzana Skuhrovec, Jiří Insects Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Our aim was to determine the effects of a free-living leaf-chewing generalist caterpillar on leaf damage of several different closely related plant species. Herbivore performance and leaf damage were affected by similar plant traits. Traits related to higher caterpillar mortality (higher leaf dissection, number, length and toughness of spines and lower trichome density) also led to higher leaf damage. Both types of data may be used to identify the key traits driving the interactions. On the other hand, we confirmed that it is very important to carefully distinguish whether the data on leaf damage were obtained in the field or in controlled feeding experiments, as the patterns expected in the two environments go in opposite directions. ABSTRACT: Data on plant herbivore damage as well as on herbivore performance have been previously used to identify key plant traits driving plant–herbivore interactions. The extent to which the two approaches lead to similar conclusions remains to be explored. We determined the effect of a free-living leaf-chewing generalist caterpillar, Spodoptera littoralis (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), on leaf damage of 24 closely related plant species from the Carduoideae subfamily and the effect of these plant species on caterpillar growth. We used a wide range of physical defense leaf traits and leaf nutrient contents as the plant traits. Herbivore performance and leaf damage were affected by similar plant traits. Traits related to higher caterpillar mortality (higher leaf dissection, number, length and toughness of spines and lower trichome density) also led to higher leaf damage. This fits with the fact that each caterpillar was feeding on a single plant and, thus, had to consume more biomass of the less suitable plants to obtain the same amount of nutrients. The key plant traits driving plant–herbivore interactions identified based on data on herbivore performance largely corresponded to the traits identified as important based on data on leaf damage. This suggests that both types of data may be used to identify the key plant traits determining plant–herbivore interactions. It is, however, important to carefully distinguish whether the data on leaf damage were obtained in the field or in a controlled feeding experiment, as the patterns expected in the two environments may go in opposite directions. MDPI 2020-12-04 /pmc/articles/PMC7762045/ /pubmed/33291794 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11120865 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Münzbergová, Zuzana
Skuhrovec, Jiří
Data on Herbivore Performance and Plant Herbivore Damage Identify the Same Plant Traits as the Key Drivers of Plant–Herbivore Interaction
title Data on Herbivore Performance and Plant Herbivore Damage Identify the Same Plant Traits as the Key Drivers of Plant–Herbivore Interaction
title_full Data on Herbivore Performance and Plant Herbivore Damage Identify the Same Plant Traits as the Key Drivers of Plant–Herbivore Interaction
title_fullStr Data on Herbivore Performance and Plant Herbivore Damage Identify the Same Plant Traits as the Key Drivers of Plant–Herbivore Interaction
title_full_unstemmed Data on Herbivore Performance and Plant Herbivore Damage Identify the Same Plant Traits as the Key Drivers of Plant–Herbivore Interaction
title_short Data on Herbivore Performance and Plant Herbivore Damage Identify the Same Plant Traits as the Key Drivers of Plant–Herbivore Interaction
title_sort data on herbivore performance and plant herbivore damage identify the same plant traits as the key drivers of plant–herbivore interaction
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7762045/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33291794
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11120865
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