Costs and benefits of tritrophic signalling between plants and parasitoids
| Project responsable | Ted Turlings |
| Team member |
Solène Guenat
Nathalie Veyrat Nicolas Foresti Julia Bilat Thierry Arnet Neil Villard Zully Lopez Guevara Christelle Guinand Yibeltal Amare Dylan Tatti Lila ThiÉBaud Gauthier Sandoz Thomas Degen Harmony Yersin Lamilà Demarta Camille Bugnon Géraldine Buttet Stéphanie Mercier Gwladys Doyen Coraline Sahin |
| Abstract |
When plants are attacked by arthropod herbivores they actively emit
volatile substances that attract natural enemies of the herbivores.
It is generally assumed that these herbivore-induced volatiles
function as indirect defense signals and several field studies have
provided evidence that the volatiles contribute to enhanced
mortality of herbivores. Yet, skepticism persists among some
scientists concerning the benefits that the plants derive from
attracting natural enemies, especially where it concerns the
attraction of parasitoids. It is also often criticized that the
function of herbivore-induced volatiles is mostly studied in
systems that involve cultivated plants and natural systems have
rarely been investigated. For the current project we will study the
plant teosinte and associated insects in their natural environment
in Mexico. Teosinte is the wild ancestor of maize and maize is the
best-studied plant in the context of tritrophic interactions. We
will use our knowledge of the genetic and chemical mechanisms of
these interactions in the cultivated system to study the same
interactions in teosinte in order to address our general hypothesis
that inducible volatiles attract parasitoids and thereby reduce
herbivore damage and increase plant fitness. The aim is to provide
the first evidence from nature for the adaptive role of volatile
plant signals in recruiting natural enemies of herbivores. |
| Keywords |
tritrophic interactions, plant-insect interactions, parasitoids, induced plant volatiles |
| Type of project | Fundamental research project |
| Research area | Ecologie |
| Method of financing | FNS - Encouragement de projets (Div. I-III) |
| Status | Completed |
| Start of project | 1-10-2008 |
| End of project | 30-9-2012 |
| Overall budget | 529'500.00 |
| Additional info |
http://p3.snf.ch/projects-122132# |
| Contact | Ted Turlings |