| Title: | "Complex Interactions among Sheep, Insects, Grass, and Fungi in a Simple New Zealand Grazing System" |
| Author(s): | Bultman TL; McNeill MR; Krueger K; De Nicolo G; Popay AJ; Hume DE; Mace WJ; Fletcher LR; Koh YM; Sullivan TJ; |
| Address: | "Biology Department, Hope College, 35 E. 12th St., Holland, MI, 49423, USA. bultmant@hope.edu. AgResearch, Canterbury Agric. Sci. Centre, Lincoln, Canterbury, New Zealand. Biology Department, Hope College, 35 E. 12th St., Holland, MI, 49423, USA. AgResearch - Ruakura Research Centre, Hamilton, New Zealand. AgResearch, Grasslands Research Centre, Palmerston North, New Zealand. , Prebbleton, New Zealand. Mathematics Department, Hope College, Holland, MI, USA. School of Sciences, Indiana University Kokomo, Kokomo, IN, USA" |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10886-018-0993-6 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1573-1561 (Electronic) 0098-0331 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Epichloe fungi (Ascomycota) live within aboveground tissues of grasses and can have important implications for natural and managed ecosystems through production of alkaloids. Nonetheless, vertebrate herbivores may possess traits, like oral secretions, that mitigate effects of alkaloids. We tested if sheep saliva mitigates effects of Epichloe alkaloids on a beetle pest of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) in a New Zealand pasture setting. Plants with one of several fungal isolates were clipped with scissors, grazed by sheep, or clipped with sheep saliva applied to cut ends of stems. We then assessed feeding damage by Argentine stem weevils on blade segments collected from experimental plants. We found that clipping plants induced synthesis of an alkaloid that reduces feeding by beetles and that sheep saliva mitigates this effect. Unexpectedly, the alkaloid (perloline) that explains variation in beetle feeding is one produced not by the endophyte, but rather by the plant. Yet, these effects depended upon fungal isolate. Such indirect, complex interactions may be much more common in both managed and natural grassland systems than typically thought and could have implications for managing grazing systems" |
| Keywords: | Alkaloids/pharmacology Animals Ascomycota/metabolism/*physiology *Ecosystem *Lolium New Zealand Saliva/metabolism Sheep/*microbiology Symbiosis Weevils/drug effects/*microbiology Agroecology Alkaloid Endophytic fungi Indirect interactions Plant-insect int; |
| Notes: | "MedlineBultman, Thomas L McNeill, Mark R Krueger, Kelly De Nicolo, Gina Popay, Alison J Hume, David E Mace, Wade J Fletcher, Lester R Koh, Yew Meng Sullivan, Terrence J eng 1119775/National Science Foundation/ 2018/07/27 J Chem Ecol. 2018 Oct; 44(10):957-964. doi: 10.1007/s10886-018-0993-6. Epub 2018 Jul 26" |
