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Immunological Memory of Mountain Birches: Effects of Phenolics on Performance of the Autumnal Moth Depend on Herbivory History of Trees

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Abstract

Plants have been suggested to have an immunological memory comparable to animals. The evidence for this, however, is scarce. In our study with the mountain birch—Epirrita autumnata system, we demonstrated that birches exposed as long as 5 yr to feeding of E. autumnata larvae (delayed induced resistance, DIR), responded more strongly to a new challenge than trees without an herbivory history. Pupal weights remained lower, and the duration of the larval period was prolonged in the DIR trees, although immunity, measured as an encapsulation rate, was not affected. We further demonstrated that the effects of birch phenolics on performance of E. autumnata were different in the exposed (DIR) trees from naive control trees, although we found only one significant change in chemistry. The quercetin:kaemferol ratio was increased in DIR trees, suggesting that herbivory caused oxidative stress in birches. In DIR trees, phenolics, especially hydrolyzable tannins (HTs), affected pupal weights negatively, whereas in control trees, the effects were either nonsignificant or positive. HTs also prolonged the duration of the larval period of females, whereas peroxidase (POD) activity prolonged that of males. We suggest that the causal explanation for the induced resistance was an enhanced oxidation of phenolic compounds from the DIR trees in the larval digestive tract. Phenolic oxidation produces semiquinones, quinones, free radicals, and ROS, which may have toxic, antinutritive, and/or repellent properties against herbivores.

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Acknowledgements

The research was conducted in Kevo Subarctic Research Station, and we thank the staff for help and co-work. We also thank the department of Physiology and Genetics for providing the facilities for the enzymatic assays. We also thank our field assistants Ulla Anttila, Tia Lampela, Liisa Rantala and Mikko Oikamo, and Piia Saarinen for doing the phenolic analyses. Salla-Riikka Vesterlund kindly checked the English language. The study was supported financially by the Academy of Finland, Kone and Emil Aaltonen Foundation.

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  1. Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, FI-20014, Turku, Finland

    Teija Ruuhola, Sanna Haviola, Shiyong Yang & Markus J. Rantala

  2. Laboratory of Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Department of Chemistry, University of Turku, FI-20014, Turku, Finland

    Juha-Pekka Salminen

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  1. Teija Ruuhola
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  2. Juha-Pekka Salminen
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Correspondence to Teija Ruuhola.

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Ruuhola, T., Salminen, JP., Haviola, S. et al. Immunological Memory of Mountain Birches: Effects of Phenolics on Performance of the Autumnal Moth Depend on Herbivory History of Trees. J Chem Ecol 33, 1160–1176 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-007-9308-z

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