| Title: | Insect exuviae as soil amendment affect flower reflectance and increase flower production and plant volatile emission |
| Author(s): | Barragan-Fonseca KY; Rusman Q; Mertens D; Weldegergis BT; Peller J; Polder G; Van Loon JJA; Dicke M; |
| Address: | "Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Grupo en Conservacion y Manejo de Vida Silvestre, Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota, Colombia. Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, California, USA. Greenhouse Horticulture, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1365-3040 (Electronic) 0140-7791 (Print) 0140-7791 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Soil composition and herbivory are two environmental factors that can affect plant traits including flower traits, thus potentially affecting plant-pollinator interactions. Importantly, soil composition and herbivory may interact in these effects, with consequences for plant fitness. We assessed the main effects of aboveground insect herbivory and soil amendment with exuviae of three different insect species on visual and olfactory traits of Brassica nigra plants, including interactive effects. We combined various methodological approaches including gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, spectroscopy and machine learning to evaluate changes in flower morphology, colour and the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Soil amended with insect exuviae increased the total number of flowers per plant and VOC emission, whereas herbivory reduced petal area and VOC emission. Soil amendment and herbivory interacted in their effect on the floral reflectance spectrum of the base part of petals and the emission of 10 VOCs. These findings demonstrate the effects of insect exuviae as soil amendment on plant traits involved in reproduction, with a potential for enhanced reproductive success by increasing the strength of signals attracting pollinators and by mitigating the negative effects of herbivory" |
| Keywords: | Animals *Soil *Volatile Organic Compounds/analysis Pollination Flowers/anatomy & histology Insecta Herbivory Brassica nigra floral traits insect residual streams plant phenotype plant-pollinator interactions; |
| Notes: | "MedlineBarragan-Fonseca, Katherine Y Rusman, Quint Mertens, Daan Weldegergis, Berhane T Peller, Joseph Polder, Gerrit van Loon, Joop J A Dicke, Marcel eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2022/12/15 Plant Cell Environ. 2023 Mar; 46(3):931-945. doi: 10.1111/pce.14516. Epub 2022 Dec 26" |
