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Cost of trichome production and resistance to a specialist insect herbivore in Arabidopsis lyrata

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Abstract

Theory predicts that trade-offs between resistance to herbivory and other traits positively affecting fitness can maintain genetic variation in resistance within plant populations. In the perennial herb Arabidopsis lyrata, trichome production is a resistance trait that exhibits both qualitative and quantitative variation. Using a paternal half-sib design, we conducted two greenhouse experiments to ask whether trichomes confer resistance to oviposition and leaf herbivory by the specialist moth Plutella xylostella, and to examine potential genetic constraints on evolution of increased resistance and trichome density. In addition, we examined whether trichome production is induced by insect herbivory. We found strong positive genetic and phenotypic correlations between leaf trichome density and resistance to leaf herbivory, demonstrating that the production of leaf trichomes increases resistance to leaf damage by P. xylostella. Also resistance to oviposition tended to increase with increasing leaf trichome density, but genetic and phenotypic correlations were not statistically significant. Trichome density and resistance to leaf herbivory were negatively correlated genetically with plant size in the absence of herbivores, but not in the presence of herbivores. There was no evidence of increased trichome production after leaf damage by P. xylostella. The results suggest that trichome production and resistance to leaf herbivory are associated with a cost and that the direction of selection on resistance and trichome density depends on the intensity of herbivory.

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Acknowledgments

We thank M. Vallejo-Marin and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript. This study was financially supported by grants from Formas and the Swedish Research Council to J.Å., from the Academy of Finland to P.H. and K.K., and from NorFA, the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Evolutionary Ecology Graduate School of the University of Jyväskylä to P.H.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Ecology, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18 D, 752 36, Uppsala, Sweden

    Nina Sletvold, Richard Handley & Jon Ågren

  2. Finnish Forest Research Institute, Muhos Research Unit, Kirkkosaarentie 7, 91500, Muhos, Finland

    Piritta Huttunen & Katri Kärkkäinen

  3. NTNU, Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Nina Sletvold

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  1. Nina Sletvold
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  2. Piritta Huttunen
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  3. Richard Handley
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  4. Katri Kärkkäinen
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  5. Jon Ågren
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Correspondence to Nina Sletvold.

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Sletvold, N., Huttunen, P., Handley, R. et al. Cost of trichome production and resistance to a specialist insect herbivore in Arabidopsis lyrata . Evol Ecol 24, 1307–1319 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-010-9381-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-010-9381-6

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