Foliar herbivory increases sucrose concentration in bracteal extrafloral nectar of cotton
| Autor: | Pierre Lesne, Caroline Wilson, Cody C. Gale, Charles P.-C. Suh, Gregory A. Sword, Anjel M. Helms |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Sucrose
Plant Science Cotton Gossypium Disaccharides chemistry.chemical_compound Flowering Plants Multidisciplinary Ecology Organic Compounds Plant Anatomy Eukaryota food and beverages Plants ANT Trophic Interactions Insects Horticulture Chemistry Community Ecology Physical Sciences Medicine Nectaries Research Article Plant Nectar Arthropoda Science Carbohydrates Flowers Biology Plant-Animal Interactions Nectar Animals Herbivory Sugar Herbivore Ants Plant Ecology Ecology and Environmental Sciences Organic Chemistry fungi Organisms Chemical Compounds Biology and Life Sciences Plant-Herbivore Interactions Fructose Carbohydrate biology.organism_classification Hymenoptera Invertebrates Plant Leaves chemistry Zoology Entomology |
| Zdroj: | PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 10 (2021) PLoS ONE PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 10, p e0258836 (2021) |
| ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
| Popis: | Cultivated cotton, such as Gossypium hirsutum L., produces extrafloral (EF) nectar on leaves (foliar) and reproductive structures (bracteal) as an indirect anti-herbivore defense. In exchange for this carbohydrate-rich substance, predatory insects such as ants protect the plant against herbivorous insects. Some EF nectar-bearing plants respond to herbivory by increasing EF nectar production. For instance, herbivore-free G. hirsutum produces more bracteal than foliar EF nectar, but increases its foliar EF nectar production in response to herbivory. This study is the first to test for systemically induced changes to the carbohydrate composition of bracteal EF nectar in response to foliar herbivory on G. hirsutum. We found that foliar herbivory significantly increased the sucrose content of bracteal EF nectar while glucose and fructose remained unchanged. Sucrose content is known to influence ant foraging behavior and previous studies of an herbivore-induced increase to EF nectar caloric content found that it led to increased ant activity on the plant. As a follow-up to our finding, ant recruitment to mock EF nectar solutions that varied in sucrose content was tested in the field. The ants did not exhibit any preference for either solution, potentially because sucrose is a minor carbohydrate component in G. hirsutum EF nectar: total sugar content was not significantly affected by the increase in sucrose. Nonetheless, our findings raise new questions about cotton’s inducible EF nectar responses to herbivory. Further research is needed to determine whether an herbivore-induced increase in sucrose content is typical of Gossypium spp., and whether it constitutes a corollary of systemic sucrose induction, or a potentially adaptive mechanism which enhances ant attraction to the plant |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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