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Elevated CO2 influences herbivory-induced defense responses of Arabidopsis thaliana

  • Plant Animal Interactions
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Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate that elevated CO2 can modify herbivory-induced plant chemical responses in terms of both total and individual glucosinolate concentrations. Overall, herbivory by larvae of diamondback moths (Plutella xylostella) resulted in no change in glucosinolate levels of the annual plant Arabidopsis thaliana under ambient CO2 conditions. However, herbivory induced a significant 28–62% increase in glucosinolate contents at elevated CO2. These inducible chemical responses were both genotype-specific and dependent on the individual glucosinolate considered. Elevated CO2 can also affect structural defenses such as trichomes and insect-glucosinolate interactions. Insect performance was significantly influenced by specific glucosinolates, although only under CO2 enrichment. This study can have implications for the evolution of inducible defenses and coevolutionary adaptations between plants and their associated herbivores in future changing environments.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Juan L. Bouzat and Ken Paige for helpful comments on previous versions of this manuscript, Daniel Warnock and Evan deLucia for providing materials for this experiment, and the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center for supplying seeds for this experiment. This work was funded by a Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research to M.G.B.B.

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Author notes

  1. M. Gabriela Bidart-Bouzat

    Present address: W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University, 3700 East Gull Lake Drive, Hickory Corners, MI, 49060-9516, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Biology, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 505 Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    M. Gabriela Bidart-Bouzat

  2. Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK

    Richard Mithen

  3. Department of Entomology, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 505 Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    May R. Berenbaum

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  1. M. Gabriela Bidart-Bouzat
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  2. Richard Mithen
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  3. May R. Berenbaum
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Correspondence to M. Gabriela Bidart-Bouzat.

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Communicated by Richard Lindroth

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Bidart-Bouzat, M.G., Mithen, R. & Berenbaum, M.R. Elevated CO2 influences herbivory-induced defense responses of Arabidopsis thaliana . Oecologia 145, 415–424 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-005-0158-5

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