Abstract
Abstract Plants emit volatile blends specific to particular herbivore interactions, which predators and parasitoids learn to associate with prey, increasing herbivore mortality and thereby plant fitness in a phenomenon termed indirect defence. Herbivore‐induced plant volatile blends commonly include both rapid, transient green leaf volatiles ( GLV s) and delayed, enduring sesquiterpenes. A few laboratory studies indicate that insects can use plant volatiles to time behaviour, but it is not known whether and how the temporal dynamics of plant volatile blends influence their function in indirect defence. We characterized the activity of the native herbivores Manduca sexta and Tupiocoris notatus and their predators, Geocoris spp., on their host plant Nicotiana attenuata in their natural habitat. Diurnal predator activity only partially overlapped with variable herbivore activity, and herbivore attack at the beginning or end of the photophase elicited plant volatile blends with distinct GLV and sesquiterpene profiles. In field trials, day‐active Geocoris spp. predators preferred morning‐ over evening‐typical GLV blends. Using plants genetically transformed so as to be unable to produce specific volatiles, we found that GLV s increased predation after dawn elicitations, whereas sesquiterpenes increased predation after dusk elicitations in field trials. We conclude that predators respond to temporal differences in plant volatile blends, and that the different dynamics of specific volatiles permit effective indirect defence despite variable herbivore activity in nature. A plain language summary is available for this article.
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Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
Predator activity only partly overlapped variable herbivore activity.
- Taxon
- Nicotiana attenuata
Nicotiana attenuatae1 - Outcome
- predator activity only partially overlapped with variable herbivore activitye0
GeocorisOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Diurnal predator activity only partially overlapped with variable herbivore activity”
e1“Geocoris spp., on their host plant Nicotiana attenuata”
Claim · model-written summary
Herbivore attack at the beginning versus end of the photophase elicited distinct GLV and sesquiterpene profiles.
- Taxon
- Nicotiana attenuataNicotiana attenuatae1
- Outcome
- plant volatile blends with distinct GLV and sesquiterpene profilese0
- Qualifier
- at the beginning or end of the photophasee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“herbivore attack at the beginning or end of the photophase elicited plant volatile blends with distinct GLV and sesquiterpene profiles”
e1“Geocoris spp., on their host plant Nicotiana attenuata”
Claim · model-written summary
Geocoris predators preferred morning over evening GLV blends in field trials.
- Taxon
- Nicotiana attenuataNicotiana attenuatae1
- Outcome
- preferred morning‐ over evening‐typical GLV blendse0
- Comparator
- evening‐typical GLV blendse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“day‐active Geocoris spp. predators preferred morning‐ over evening‐typical GLV blends”
e1“Geocoris spp., on their host plant Nicotiana attenuata”
Claim · model-written summary
GLVs increased predation after dawn elicitations.
- Taxon
- Nicotiana attenuataNicotiana attenuatae1
- Treatment
- GLV se0
- Outcome
- predatione0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Qualifier
- after dawn elicitationse0
- Comparator
- unable to produce specific volatilese2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“GLV s increased predation after dawn elicitations”
e1“Geocoris spp., on their host plant Nicotiana attenuata”
e2“plants genetically transformed so as to be unable to produce specific volatiles”
Claim · model-written summary
Sesquiterpenes increased predation after dusk elicitations.
- Taxon
- Nicotiana attenuataNicotiana attenuatae1
- Treatment
- sesquiterpenese0
- Outcome
- predatione0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Qualifier
- after dusk elicitationse0
- Comparator
- unable to produce specific volatilese2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“sesquiterpenes increased predation after dusk elicitations”
e1“Geocoris spp., on their host plant Nicotiana attenuata”
e2“plants genetically transformed so as to be unable to produce specific volatiles”