Search results for "herb"

2018

Many animals protect themselves from predation with chemicals, both self-made or sequestered from their diet. The potential drivers of the diversity of these chemicals have been long studied, but our knowledge of these chemicals and their acquisition mode is heavily based on specialist herbivores that sequester their defenses. The wood tiger moth (Arctia plantaginis, Linnaeus, 1758) is a well-studied aposematic species, but the nature of its chemical defenses has not been fully described . Here, we report the presence of two methoxypyrazines, 2-sec-butyl-3-methoxypyrazine and 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, in the moths' defensive secretions. By raising larvae on an artificial diet, we confir…

Ecological conditions alter cooperative behaviour and its costs in a chemically defended sawfly

2018

The evolution of cooperation and social behaviour is often studied in isolation from the ecology of organisms. Yet, the selective environment under which individuals evolve is much more complex in nature, consisting of ecological and abiotic interactions in addition to social ones. Here, we measured the life-history costs of cooperative chemical defence in a gregarious social herbivore, Diprion pini pine sawfly larvae, and how these costs vary under different ecological conditions. We ran a rearing experiment where we manipulated diet (resin content) and attack intensity by repeatedly harassing larvae to produce a chemical defence. We show that forcing individuals to allocate more to coope…

Root growth compensates for molar wear in adult goats (Capra aegagrus hircus)

2018

One reason for the mammalian clade’s success is the evolutionary diversity of their teeth. In herbivores, this is represented by high‐crowned teeth evolved to compensate for wear caused by dietary abrasives like phytoliths and grit. Exactly how dietary abrasives wear teeth is still not understood completely. We fed four different pelleted diets of increasing abrasiveness (L: Lucerne; G: grass; GR: grass and rice husks; GRS: grass, rice husks, and sand) to four groups of a total of 28 adult goats, all with completely erupted third molars, over a six‐month period. Tooth morphology was captured by medical computed tomography scans at the beginning and end of the controlled feeding experiment, …

Defense Priming in Nicotiana tabacum Accelerates and Amplifies ‘New’ C/N Fluxes in Key Amino Acid Biosynthetic Pathways

2020

: In the struggle to survive herbivory by leaf-feeding insects, plants employ multiple strategies to defend themselves. One mechanism by which plants increase resistance is by intensifying their responsiveness in the production of certain defense agents to create a rapid response. Known as defense priming, this action can accelerate and amplify responses of metabolic pathways, providing plants with long-lasting resistance, especially when faced with waves of attack. In the work presented, short-lived radiotracers of carbon administered as 11CO2 and nitrogen administered as 13NH3 were applied in Nicotiana tabacum, to examine the temporal changes in &lsquo

Oxylipin mediated stress response of a miraculin-like protease inhibitor in Hexanoic acid primed eggplant plants infested by Colorado potato beetle

2017

Insect-plant interactions are governed by a complex equilibrium between the mechanisms through which plant recognize insect attack and orchestrate downstream signaling events that trigger plant defense responses, and the mechanisms by which insects overcome plant defenses. Due to this tight and dynamic interplay, insight into the nature of the plant defense response can be gained by analyzing changes in the insect herbivores digestive system upon plant feeding. In this work we have identified a Solanum melongena miraculin-like protease inhibitor in the midgut juice of Colorado potato larvae feeding on eggplant plants treated with the natural inducer of plant defenses hexanoic acid. We analy…

Production of rosmarinic acid and salvianolic acid B from callus culture of Salvia miltiorrhiza with cytotoxicity towards acute lymphoblastic leukemi…

2016

Salvia miltiorrhiza (SM) Bunge is one of the widely-used Chinese medicinal herbs. In this study, the chemical constituents and anticancer potential of SM stems and leaves were examined with those of respective callus cultures. The callus culture for stem and leaf explants was initiated in modified Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium. Active constituents of respective extracts were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with DAD and MS (HPLC-DAD-MS). Rosmarinic acid (RA) and salvianolic acid B (Sal B) were determined to be the main phenolic compounds. Quantitative analyses revealed that callus stem extracts produced higher amount of RA and Sal B (stem RA: 1.27±0.38%; stem Sal…

Trichoderma harzianum Strain T22 Modulates Direct Defense of Tomato Plants in Response to Nezara viridula Feeding Activity

2021

AbstractPlant growth-promoting fungi belonging to genus Trichoderma are known to help plants when dealing with biotic stressors by enhancing plant defenses. While beneficial effects of Trichoderma spp. against plant pathogens have long been documented, fewer studies have investigated their effect on insect pests. Here, we studied the impact of Trichoderma root colonization on the plant defense responses against stink bug feeding attack. For this purpose, a model system consisting of tomato plant, Solanum lycopersicum cv Dwarf San Marzano, Trichoderma harzianum strain T22 and the southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula, was used. We firstly determined stink bug performance in terms of rela…

Symbiotic polydnavirus and venom reveal parasitoid to its hyperparasitoids

2018

Symbiotic relationships benefit organisms in utilization of new niches. In parasitoid wasps, symbiotic viruses and venom that are injected together with wasp eggs into the host caterpillar suppress immune responses of the host and enhance parasitoid survival. We found that the virus also has negative effects on offspring survival when placing these interactions in a community context. The virus and venom drive a chain of interactions that includes the herbivore and its food plant and attracts the hyperparasitoid enemies of the parasitoid. Our results shed new light on the importance of symbionts associated with their host in driving ecological interactions and highlight the intricacy of how…

Foraging behaviour of an egg parasitoid exploiting plant volatiles induced by pentatomids : The role of adaxial and abaxial leaf surfaces

2017

Several phases of herbivorous insect attack including feeding and oviposition are known to induce plant defenses. Plants emit volatiles induced by herbivores to recruit insect parasitoids as an indirect defense strategy. So far, volatiles induced by herbivore walking and their putative role in the foraging behavior of egg parasitoids have not been investigated. In this paper we studied the response of the egg parasitoid Trissolcus basalis toward volatiles emitted by Vicia faba plants as consequence of the walking activity of the host Nezara viridula. Olfactometer bioassays were carried out to evaluate wasp responses to plants in which the abaxial or the adaxial surfaces were subjected to wa…

Angiosperm to Gymnosperm host-plant switch entails shifts in microbiota of the Welwitschia bug, Probergrothius angolensis (Distant, 1902).

2019

The adaptation of herbivorous insects to new host plants is key to their evolutionary success in diverse environments. Many insects are associated with mutualistic gut bacteria that contribute to the host's nutrition and can thereby facilitate dietary switching in polyphagous insects. However, how gut microbial communities differ between populations of the same species that feed on different host plants remains poorly understood. Most species of Pyrrhocoridae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) are specialist seed-feeders on plants in the family Malvaceae, although populations of one species, Probergrothius angolensis, have switched to the very distantly related Welwitschia mirabilis plant in the Nami…