Under Fire –simultaneous Volatilome and Transcriptome Analysis Unravels Fine-scale Responses of Tansy Chemotypes to Dual Herbivore Attack

Clancy, Mary V, Haberer, Georg, Jud, Werner, Niederbacher, Bishu, Niederbacher, Simon, Senft, Matthias, Zytynska, Sharon ORCID: 0000-0002-0174-3303, Weisser, Wolfgang W and Schnitzler, Jörg-Peter (2020) Under Fire –simultaneous Volatilome and Transcriptome Analysis Unravels Fine-scale Responses of Tansy Chemotypes to Dual Herbivore Attack. BMC Plant Biology.

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Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p><jats:bold>Background </jats:bold>Tansy plants (Tanacetum vulgare L.) are known for their high intraspecific chemical variation, especially of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from the terpenoid group of substances. These VOCs are closely involved in plant-insect interactions and, when profiled, can be used to classify plants into groups known as chemotypes. Tansy chemotypes have been shown to influence plant-aphid interactions, however, to date no information is available on the response of different tansy chemotypes to simultaneous herbivory by more than one insect species. <jats:bold>Results</jats:bold> Using a multi-cuvette system, we investigated the responses of five tansy chemotypes to feeding by sucking and/or chewing herbivores (aphids and caterpillars; Metopeurum fuscoviride Stroyan and Spodoptera littoralis Boisduval). We did not observe any strong changes in plant VOC emissions when exposed to sucking aphids, while polyphagous caterpillars strongly increased VOC emissions for each plant chemotype. Herbivory by caterpillars following aphid infestation led to a plant chemotype-specific change in the patterns of terpenoids stored in trichome hairs and in VOC emissions. The transcriptomic analysis of a plant chemotype represents the first de novo assembly of a transcriptome in tansy and demonstrates priming effects of aphids on a subsequent herbivory. Overall, we show that the five chemotypes do not react in the same way to the two herbivores. As expected, we found that caterpillar feeding increased VOC emissions. However, the previous aphid infestation only led to a further increase in VOC emissions for some chemotypes. <jats:bold>Conclusions</jats:bold> We were able to show that different chemotypes respond to the double herbivore attack in different ways, and that pre-treatment with aphids had a priming effect on plants when they were subsequently exposed to a chewing herbivore. Our results will be important for the study of chemical communication of plants in nature. If neighbouring chemotypes in a field population react differently to herbivory/dual herbivory, this could possibly have effects from the individual level to the group level. Individuals of some chemotypes may respond more efficiently to herbivory stress than others, and in a group environment these "louder" chemotypes may affect the local insect community, including the natural enemies of herbivores, and other neighbouring plants.</jats:p>

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	08 Apr 2021 09:37
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2023 22:53
DOI:	10.21203/rs.3.rs-47578/v1
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3118696