Open AccessPhysiological Integration Plays Key Role in Cranberry (Ericales: Ericaceae) for Tolerance of Damage byDasineura oxycoccana(Diptera: Cecidomyiidae)
Author(s) -
Swati Tewari,
John P. Buonaccorsi,
Ann Averill
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
environmental entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.749
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1938-2936
pISSN - 0046-225X
DOI - 10.1603/en13231
Subject(s) - ericaceae , cecidomyiidae , key (lock) , library science , biology , botany , horticulture , computer science , ecology , gall
Understanding the mechanisms by which plants tolerate herbivory is important in the study of insect-plant interactions. In cranberry, current season growth has been identified as the main source of photosynthate for the developing fruits. Feeding injury by larvae of cranberry tipworm, Dasineura oxycoccana Johnson, disrupts the apical growth of cranberry shoots or uprights, but does not impact fruit output. To study the effects of experimentally depleting photosynthate available from sources other than the current season growth on fruit output, we girdled tipworm-injured uprights. This technique enabled us to estimate the contribution of current season growth in supplying photosynthate to developing fruits in tipworm-injured uprights. The mean fruit weight declined by >55% in those tipworm-injured uprights that were limited to photosynthate from only the current season growth (girdled uprights). The result was consistent between two phenologically different cultivars of cranberry, one a native selection from wild cranberry stands ('Howes') and the other a hybrid ('Stevens'). In addition, fruit weight was positively correlated to current season leaf area in the girdled uprights only. These results strongly suggest that physiological integration among the different sources of photosynthate plays a key role in the tolerance of tipworm feeding injury for fruit output in cranberry.