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Phloem‐feeding whiteflies can fool their host plants, but not their parasitoids
Author(s) -
Zhang PengJun,
Xu CaiXia,
Zhang JinMing,
Lu YaoBin,
Wei JiaNing,
Liu YinQuan,
David Anja,
Boland Wilhelm,
Turlings Ted C. J.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
functional ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.272
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1365-2435
pISSN - 0269-8463
DOI - 10.1111/1365-2435.12132
Subject(s) - biology , jasmonic acid , phloem , host (biology) , parasitoid , whitefly , salicylic acid , arabidopsis thaliana , herbivore , botany , greenhouse whitefly , plant defense against herbivory , myrcene , arabidopsis , mutant , gene , trialeurodes , ecology , homoptera , pest analysis , biochemistry , essential oil , limonene
Summary Herbivore attack induces plants to mobilize chemical defences, including the release of volatiles that attract natural enemies of the herbivore. This commonly involves the jasmonic acid ( JA ) pathway. However, phloem‐feeding whiteflies specifically trigger salicylic acid ( SA )‐signalling, thereby suppressing JA ‐based defences and enhancing host plant suitability. Here, we show with A rabidopsis thaliana plants that the whitefly parasitoid E ncarsia formosa outsmarts this apparent host plant manipulation by exploiting the SA ‐triggered emission of β‐myrcene. Assays with various Arabidopsis mutants and phytohormone and gene‐expression analyses reveal that the whiteflies induce the accumulation of endogenous SA , thereby enhancing the expression of SA ‐regulated genes, one of which encodes ocimene/myrcene synthase, which resulted in the recruitment of parasitoids under greenhouse conditions. Performance assays confirmed that whiteflies directly benefit from suppressing JA ‐based defences. Taken together, we conclude that by activating SA ‐signalling whitefly feeding suppresses direct, JA ‐based defences, but that parasitoids can adapt to this by exploiting specific, SA ‐induced volatile emissions for host location. Our work further confirms that herbivory contributes to selective pressure governing the evolution of inducible volatile signals as indirect plant defences.