| Title: | Corn defense responses to nitrogen availability and subsequent performance and feeding preferences of beet armyworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) |
| Author(s): | Ren LL; Hardy G; Liu ZD; Wei W; Dai HG; |
| Address: | "Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Key Laboratory of Monitoring and Management of Crop Diseases and Pest Insects, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210095, China. renlili1984@gmail.com" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0022-0493 (Print) 0022-0493 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Many studies have reported the effect of nitrogen (N) fertilization on plant constitutive defense responses; however, little is known about their effects on plant induced defense patterns and its consequence for insect herbivores. In our experiments, the effects of N availability on growth, nutritional quality (N content, protein/carbohydrate [P:C] ratio, modified gross energy [MGE]), and constitutive phenolics of corn, Zea mays L. were quantified. Moreover, the indirect effects of N fertilization on the beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua Hubner through larval performance and feeding preference were examined. N fertilization increased plant growth, and depressed defense traits by increasing N content and the P:C ratio, as well as decreasing the constitutive concentration of phenolics. Subsequently, beet armyworm showed higher performance and preferentially fed on high-N corn because of its low defense traits. After beet armyworm feeding, high-N corn significantly deterred larval feeding, and had negative effects on the performance of beet armyworm through decreasing P:C ratio and increasing induced phenolics. On the contrary, there were no significant changes in P:C ratio and phenolics in low-N corn after feeding damage. Larval performance and preference were also not affected by induced compounds in low-N corn, which suggested that the expression of induced defense was dependent on N availability. The result indicates that N availability can exert a variety of bottom-up effect on plant defense patterns to influence insect population dynamics, and thereby may represent a source of variation in plant-insect interactions" |
| Keywords: | "Aging Animals Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid Dose-Response Relationship, Drug Feeding Behavior Fertilizers/analysis Herbivory Larva/physiology Nitrogen/*metabolism Random Allocation Spectrophotometry Spodoptera/*physiology Zea mays/drug effects/*met;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineRen, Li-Li Hardy, Giles Liu, Zhu-Dong Wei, Wei Dai, Hua-Guo eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2013/07/20 J Econ Entomol. 2013 Jun; 106(3):1240-9. doi: 10.1603/ec12091" |
