TY - JOUR
T1 - Lygus hesperus feeding and salivary gland extracts induce volatile emissions in plants
AU - Rodriguez-Saona, Cesar
AU - Crafts-Brandner, Steven J.
AU - Williams, Livy
AU - Paré, Paul W.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments—We thank Donald Brummett for his expertise in cotton plant culture, for developing the stem girdling technique, and for his assistance in the analysis of plant volatiles by gas chromatography. We also thank Dr. Jacquelyn Blackmer, Dr. Glen Jackson, and Linda Lee for providing L. hesperus nymphs and adults for our experiments. We are very grateful to Verónica Manrique for her assistance in dissecting L. hesperus salivary glands. Synthetic volicitin was generously supplied by Dr. Hans T. Alborn and Dr. James H. Tumlinson (Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, USDA, Gainesville, Florida, USA). An early draft of this paper was kindly reviewed by Drs. Glen Jackson, Eric Schmelz, and Heather McAuslane. This work was supported in part by NRI Competitive Grants Program/USDA (award #35320-9378).
PY - 2002/9/1
Y1 - 2002/9/1
N2 - Induction of plant volatiles by leaf-chewing caterpillars is well documented. However, there is much less information about volatile induction by insects with different feeding habits. We studied the induction of plant volatiles by a piercing-sucking insect, the western tarnished plant bug Lygus hesperus Knight. Adults of both genders and nymphs of Lygus induced the local emission of a blend of volatiles from both cotton and maize. Feeding by Lygus also induced the systemic emission of volatiles that was similar but less complex than the blend emitted at the site of feeding. Infestation by mated, mature adult females (>4 days old), but not by nymphs or mature males, caused detectable emission of α-pinene, myrcene, and (E)-β-caryophyllene, compounds that are stored in the glands of cotton tissue. This indicated that damage to glands in the petiole and leaf by the female ovipositor, rather than feeding, contributed significantly to the emission of these volatiles. Girdling the plant stem to disrupt phloem transport markedly decreased the movement of14C-labeled photosynthetic products to the apex of the plant, and this treatment also markedly reduced the amount of systemically induced volatiles caused by Lygus feeding. Lygus salivary gland extracts were capable of inducing emission of the same volatile blend as measured for plants infested by feeding insects or treated with volicitin, an elicitor isolated from caterpillar regurgitant. The results indicate that L. hesperus is capable of inducing the emission of plant volatiles and that induction is caused by an elicitor that is contained in the insect salivary gland.
AB - Induction of plant volatiles by leaf-chewing caterpillars is well documented. However, there is much less information about volatile induction by insects with different feeding habits. We studied the induction of plant volatiles by a piercing-sucking insect, the western tarnished plant bug Lygus hesperus Knight. Adults of both genders and nymphs of Lygus induced the local emission of a blend of volatiles from both cotton and maize. Feeding by Lygus also induced the systemic emission of volatiles that was similar but less complex than the blend emitted at the site of feeding. Infestation by mated, mature adult females (>4 days old), but not by nymphs or mature males, caused detectable emission of α-pinene, myrcene, and (E)-β-caryophyllene, compounds that are stored in the glands of cotton tissue. This indicated that damage to glands in the petiole and leaf by the female ovipositor, rather than feeding, contributed significantly to the emission of these volatiles. Girdling the plant stem to disrupt phloem transport markedly decreased the movement of14C-labeled photosynthetic products to the apex of the plant, and this treatment also markedly reduced the amount of systemically induced volatiles caused by Lygus feeding. Lygus salivary gland extracts were capable of inducing emission of the same volatile blend as measured for plants infested by feeding insects or treated with volicitin, an elicitor isolated from caterpillar regurgitant. The results indicate that L. hesperus is capable of inducing the emission of plant volatiles and that induction is caused by an elicitor that is contained in the insect salivary gland.
KW - Induction
KW - Lygus hesperus
KW - Salivary glands
KW - Systemic signal transport
KW - Volatiles
KW - Volicitin
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0036755656&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1023/A:1020552932566
DO - 10.1023/A:1020552932566
M3 - Article
C2 - 12449502
AN - SCOPUS:0036755656
SN - 0098-0331
VL - 28
SP - 1733
EP - 1747
JO - Journal of Chemical Ecology
JF - Journal of Chemical Ecology
IS - 9
ER -