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Ubiquitous eight-carbon volatiles of fungi are infochemicals for a specialist fungivore

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Abstract

An enormous variety of volatile substances are released in distinctive blends by fungal substrates that should be recognisable for fungivores. Certain compounds dominate in most of the fungal species. Fungal oxylipins as the eight-carbon volatiles are the most prominent. This raises the question whether such are specific enough to qualify as appropriate host cues for a fungivore. We could demonstrate differentiated responses of the fungivorous beetle Bolitophagus reticulatus to eight-carbon volatiles: Nine eight-carbon volatiles were identified with GC–MS from its host fungus Fomes fomentarius. 1-Octen-3-ol, 3-octanone and 3-octanol induced contrasting behaviour of beetles in olfactometer bioassays. Electroantennographic experiments investigating the beetle olfactory sense revealed distinguishable antennal responses. Moreover, their individual release from F. fomentarius fruiting bodies changes not only considerably, but also independently over successive stages of beetle colonisation. Concentrations of attractive and repellent eight-carbon volatiles correlate to frequency of beetles in the field and further substantiate their relevance as host cues. Our results show that a specialist fungivore is able to differentiate the most common eight-carbon volatiles of fungi to assess host quality. Key roles and marked similarities of fungal to plant oxylipins suggest a comparable importance of eight-carbon volatiles to fungivores as green leaf volatiles have to herbivores.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Marko Rohlfs for valuable comments on the manuscript and Johannes Steidle for its examination. Rüdiger Blohme performed preliminary experiments and provided the photographs. Norbert Bartsch granted access to the long term study site “B2” in the Solling mountains. Yann Clough and Christoph Scherber gave us essential advice on statistical analyses. Anna Plašil helped to improve the English.

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  1. Department of Forest Zoology, Büsgen Institute, University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 3, 37077, Göttingen, Germany

    Gerrit Holighaus, Bernhard Weißbecker, Maximilian von Fragstein & Stefan Schütz

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  1. Gerrit Holighaus
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  2. Bernhard Weißbecker
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  3. Maximilian von Fragstein
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  4. Stefan Schütz
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Correspondence to Gerrit Holighaus.

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Handling Editor: Marko Rohlfs.

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Holighaus, G., Weißbecker, B., von Fragstein, M. et al. Ubiquitous eight-carbon volatiles of fungi are infochemicals for a specialist fungivore. Chemoecology 24, 57–66 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00049-014-0151-8

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