Moderate plant water stress improves larval development, and impacts immunity and gut microbiota of a specialist herbivore

PloS One
Elena RosaMarjo Saastamoinen

Abstract

While host plant drought is generally viewed as a negative phenomenon, its impact on insect herbivores can vary largely depending on the species involved and on the intensity of the drought. Extreme drought killing host plants can clearly reduce herbivore fitness, but the impact of moderate host plant water stress on insect herbivores can vary, and may even be beneficial. The populations of the Finnish Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) have faced reduced precipitation in recent years, with impacts even on population dynamics. Whether the negative effects of low precipitation are solely due to extreme desiccation killing the host plant or whether moderate drought reduces plant quality for the larvae remains unknown. We assessed the performance of larvae fed on moderately water-stressed Plantago lanceolata in terms of growth, survival, and immune response, and additionally were interested to assess whether the gut microbial composition of the larvae changed due to modification of the host plant. We found that larvae fed on water-stressed plants had increased growth, with no impact on survival, up-regulated the expression of one candidate immune gene (pelle), and had a more heterogeneous bacterial community and a sh...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 22, 2019·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Claire GelyNigel E Stork

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
dissection
PCR

Software Mentioned

R
Genemapper
LmerTest
vegan
HOMOVA
ade4

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