Background
Tansy plants (Tanacetum vulgare L.) are known for their high intraspecific chemical variation, especially of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from the terpenoid compound group. These VOCs are closely involved in plant-insect interactions and, when profiled, can be used to classify plants into groups known as chemotypes. Tansy chemotypes have been shown to influence plant-aphid interactions, however, to date no information is available on the response of different tansy chemotypes to simultaneous herbivory by more than one insect species.
Results
Using a multi-cuvette system, we investigated the responses of five tansy chemotypes to feeding by sucking and/or chewing herbivores (aphids and caterpillars; Metopeurum fuscoviride Stroyan and Spodoptera littoralis Boisduval). Herbivory by caterpillars following aphid infestation led to a plant chemotype-specific change in the patterns of terpenoids stored in trichome hairs and in VOC emissions. The transcriptomic analysis of a plant chemotype represents the first de novo assembly of a transcriptome in tansy and demonstrates priming effects of aphids on a subsequent herbivory. Overall, we show that the five chemotypes do not react in the same way to the two herbivores. As expected, we found that caterpillar feeding increased VOC emissions, however, a priori aphid infestation only led to a further increase in VOC emissions for some chemotypes.
Conclusions
We were able to show that different chemotypes respond to the double herbivore attack in different ways, and that pre-treatment with aphids had a priming effect on plants when they were subsequently exposed to a chewing herbivore. If neighbouring chemotypes in a field population react differently to herbivory/dual herbivory, this could possibly have effects from the individual level to the group level. Individuals of some chemotypes may respond more efficiently to herbivory stress than others, and in a group environment these "louder" chemotypes may affect the local insect community, including the natural enemies of herbivores, and other neighbouring plants.
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This is a list of supplementary files associated with this preprint. Click to download.
Table S1: Compounds identified in hexane and SBSE extraction analysis methods.
Table S2: Mean concentration of compounds of each plant chemotype found in hexane extractions at sampling days 4 and 7. Table S3: Mean VOC emission rates of each plant chemotype at sampling days 1-4 and 4-7. Table S4: Mean VOC emission rates of representative masses (m/z) measured using PTR-ToF-MS of different each plant chemotype at sampling days 1-4 and 4-7.
Table S5: List of differentially expressed genes
Table S6: List of differentially expressed genes associated with defence responses
Figure S1: Schematic of cuvette platform and experimental setup.
Figure S2: Two-tailed t-test analysis of summed concentrations of all VOCS (measured in hexane extracts) across chemotypes per treatment. A significant difference was found between treatment groups B and N (t-value = -3.659, df = 4, P = 0.022). N: no aphid, no caterpillar, leaf material harvested on day 4; A: aphid, no caterpillar, leaf material harvested on day 7; C: no aphid, caterpillar, leaf material harvested on day 4; B: both aphid and caterpillar, leaf material harvested on day 7.
Figure S3: Visual representation of treatment groups for transcriptome analysis.
Figure S4: Phylogenetic tree of TPS genes obtained from tansy and other related species. TPS subfamilies are coloured as follows, blue: green: TPS-a, TPS-b, yellow: TPS-f.
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Received 13 Aug, 2020
On 12 Aug, 2020
On 11 Aug, 2020
Invitations sent on 10 Aug, 2020
On 29 Jul, 2020
On 23 Jul, 2020
On 22 Jul, 2020
On 21 Jul, 2020
On 21 Nov, 2020
On 16 Nov, 2020
On 28 Oct, 2020
On 27 Oct, 2020
On 26 Oct, 2020
On 26 Oct, 2020
Posted 22 Oct, 2020
Received 24 Oct, 2020
On 24 Oct, 2020
On 14 Oct, 2020
Received 14 Oct, 2020
On 13 Oct, 2020
Invitations sent on 13 Oct, 2020
On 13 Oct, 2020
On 12 Oct, 2020
On 12 Oct, 2020
On 07 Sep, 2020
Received 06 Sep, 2020
Received 03 Sep, 2020
On 14 Aug, 2020
Received 13 Aug, 2020
On 12 Aug, 2020
On 11 Aug, 2020
Invitations sent on 10 Aug, 2020
On 29 Jul, 2020
On 23 Jul, 2020
On 22 Jul, 2020
On 21 Jul, 2020
Background
Tansy plants (Tanacetum vulgare L.) are known for their high intraspecific chemical variation, especially of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from the terpenoid compound group. These VOCs are closely involved in plant-insect interactions and, when profiled, can be used to classify plants into groups known as chemotypes. Tansy chemotypes have been shown to influence plant-aphid interactions, however, to date no information is available on the response of different tansy chemotypes to simultaneous herbivory by more than one insect species.
Results
Using a multi-cuvette system, we investigated the responses of five tansy chemotypes to feeding by sucking and/or chewing herbivores (aphids and caterpillars; Metopeurum fuscoviride Stroyan and Spodoptera littoralis Boisduval). Herbivory by caterpillars following aphid infestation led to a plant chemotype-specific change in the patterns of terpenoids stored in trichome hairs and in VOC emissions. The transcriptomic analysis of a plant chemotype represents the first de novo assembly of a transcriptome in tansy and demonstrates priming effects of aphids on a subsequent herbivory. Overall, we show that the five chemotypes do not react in the same way to the two herbivores. As expected, we found that caterpillar feeding increased VOC emissions, however, a priori aphid infestation only led to a further increase in VOC emissions for some chemotypes.
Conclusions
We were able to show that different chemotypes respond to the double herbivore attack in different ways, and that pre-treatment with aphids had a priming effect on plants when they were subsequently exposed to a chewing herbivore. If neighbouring chemotypes in a field population react differently to herbivory/dual herbivory, this could possibly have effects from the individual level to the group level. Individuals of some chemotypes may respond more efficiently to herbivory stress than others, and in a group environment these "louder" chemotypes may affect the local insect community, including the natural enemies of herbivores, and other neighbouring plants.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
This is a list of supplementary files associated with this preprint. Click to download.
Table S1: Compounds identified in hexane and SBSE extraction analysis methods.
Table S2: Mean concentration of compounds of each plant chemotype found in hexane extractions at sampling days 4 and 7. Table S3: Mean VOC emission rates of each plant chemotype at sampling days 1-4 and 4-7. Table S4: Mean VOC emission rates of representative masses (m/z) measured using PTR-ToF-MS of different each plant chemotype at sampling days 1-4 and 4-7.
Table S5: List of differentially expressed genes
Table S6: List of differentially expressed genes associated with defence responses
Figure S1: Schematic of cuvette platform and experimental setup.
Figure S2: Two-tailed t-test analysis of summed concentrations of all VOCS (measured in hexane extracts) across chemotypes per treatment. A significant difference was found between treatment groups B and N (t-value = -3.659, df = 4, P = 0.022). N: no aphid, no caterpillar, leaf material harvested on day 4; A: aphid, no caterpillar, leaf material harvested on day 7; C: no aphid, caterpillar, leaf material harvested on day 4; B: both aphid and caterpillar, leaf material harvested on day 7.
Figure S3: Visual representation of treatment groups for transcriptome analysis.
Figure S4: Phylogenetic tree of TPS genes obtained from tansy and other related species. TPS subfamilies are coloured as follows, blue: green: TPS-a, TPS-b, yellow: TPS-f.
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