Abstract:Plants are often attacked by multiple insect herbivores. How plants deal with an increasing richness of attackers from a single or multiple feeding guilds is poorly understood.We subjected black mustard (Brassica nigra) plants to 51 treatments representing attack by an increasing species richness (one, two or four species) of either phloem feeders, leaf chewers, or a mix of both feeding guilds when keeping total density of attackers constant and studied how this affects plant resistance to subsequent attack by… Show more
“…Connecting above-and belowground responses to herbivory (e.g., Johnson et al, 2016;Karssemeijer et al, 2020), especially involving multiple feeding guilds (e.g., Clancy et al, 2020;Ferná ndez de Bobadilla et al, 2021), and identifying how stress alters these processes (Nguyen et al, 2016;Havko et al, 2020) are therefore important next steps. The future of effective pest management and sustainable agroecosystems relies on an improved understanding of how environmental stress shapes plant-insect interactions and thus how global climate change alters pest virulence and spread of invasive species.…”
Concerns over widespread use of insecticides and heightened insect pest virulence under climate change continue to fuel the need for environmentally safe and sustainable control strategies. However, to develop such strategies, a better understanding of the molecular basis of plant-pest interactions is still needed. Despite decades of research investigating plant-insect interactions, few examples exist where underlying molecular mechanisms are well characterized, and even rarer are cases where this knowledge has been successfully applied to manage harmful agricultural pests. Consequently, the field appears to be static, urgently needing shifts in approaches to identify novel mechanisms by which insects colonize plants and plants avoid insect pressure. In this perspective, we outline necessary steps for advancing holistic methodologies that capture complex plant-insect molecular interactions. We highlight novel and underexploited approaches in plant-insect interaction research as essential routes to translate knowledge of underlying molecular mechanisms into durable pest control strategies, including embracing microbial partnerships, identifying what makes a plant an unsuitable host, capitalizing on tolerance of insect damage, and learning from cases where crop domestication and agronomic practices enhance pest virulence.
“…Connecting above-and belowground responses to herbivory (e.g., Johnson et al, 2016;Karssemeijer et al, 2020), especially involving multiple feeding guilds (e.g., Clancy et al, 2020;Ferná ndez de Bobadilla et al, 2021), and identifying how stress alters these processes (Nguyen et al, 2016;Havko et al, 2020) are therefore important next steps. The future of effective pest management and sustainable agroecosystems relies on an improved understanding of how environmental stress shapes plant-insect interactions and thus how global climate change alters pest virulence and spread of invasive species.…”
Concerns over widespread use of insecticides and heightened insect pest virulence under climate change continue to fuel the need for environmentally safe and sustainable control strategies. However, to develop such strategies, a better understanding of the molecular basis of plant-pest interactions is still needed. Despite decades of research investigating plant-insect interactions, few examples exist where underlying molecular mechanisms are well characterized, and even rarer are cases where this knowledge has been successfully applied to manage harmful agricultural pests. Consequently, the field appears to be static, urgently needing shifts in approaches to identify novel mechanisms by which insects colonize plants and plants avoid insect pressure. In this perspective, we outline necessary steps for advancing holistic methodologies that capture complex plant-insect molecular interactions. We highlight novel and underexploited approaches in plant-insect interaction research as essential routes to translate knowledge of underlying molecular mechanisms into durable pest control strategies, including embracing microbial partnerships, identifying what makes a plant an unsuitable host, capitalizing on tolerance of insect damage, and learning from cases where crop domestication and agronomic practices enhance pest virulence.
“…Scaling between mechanistic studies and community dynamics is difficult and rarely attempted, but in this issue of New Phytologist , Fernández de Bobadilla et al . (2021; pp. 2333–2345) make important inroads in this regard.‘This remarkable, rigorous study will hopefully inspire further investigation into the regulation of plant defenses within a community context.’…”
Section: Figmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…At the same time, more detailed, mechanistic studies have explored the individual pairwise interactions that constitute these complex networks, revealing their genomic and molecular bases (Kessler et al, 2004). Scaling between mechanistic studies and community dynamics is difficult and rarely attempted, but in the recently published article in New Phytologist, Fern andez de Bobadilla et al (2021;doi: 10.1111/nph.17228) make important inroads in this regard.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…For example, specialist and generalist herbivores have been shown to elicit different plant responses (Gutbrodt et al, 2012) and damage by 'keystone herbivores' can have strong effects on the diversity and abundance of colonizing herbivores (van Dijk et al, 2020). In this sense, it would be worth exploring whether Bobadilla et al (2021;doi: 10.1111/nph.17228), recently published in New Phytologist. Glasshouse grown Brassica nigra were exposed to constant herbivore densities consisting with three levels of herbivore species diversity (1, 2 and 4 species) where herbivores were all leaf chewers (from a pool of four herbivore species), all sap feeders (from a pool of four sap-feeding aphids), or a mixture of both (from all eight species).…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Fig.1Experimental design overview of Fern andez deBobadilla et al (2021; doi: 10.1111/nph.17228), recently published in New Phytologist. Glasshouse grown Brassica nigra were exposed to constant herbivore densities consisting with three levels of herbivore species diversity (1, 2 and 4 species) where herbivores were all leaf chewers (from a pool of four herbivore species), all sap feeders (from a pool of four sap-feeding aphids), or a mixture of both (from all eight species).…”
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