Abstract
Insect herbivores face multiple challenges to their ability to grow and reproduce. Plants can produce a series of defenses that disrupt and damage the herbivore digestive system, which are heightened upon injury by insect feeding. Additionally, insects face threats from virulent microorganisms that can incur their own set of potential costs to hosts. Microorganisms that invade through the digestive system may function in concert with defenses generated by plants, creating combined assailments on host insects. In our study, we evaluated how tomato defenses interact with an enteric bacterial isolate, Serratia marcescens, in the corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea). We performed bioassays using different tomato cultivars that were induced by methyl jasmonate and larvae orally inoculated with a S. marcescens isolate. Untreated corn earworm larval mortality was low on constitutive tomato, while larvae inoculated with S. marcescens exhibited > 50% mortality within 5 days. Induction treatments elevated both control mortality (~ 45%) and in combination with S. marcescens (> 95%). Larvae also died faster when encountering induced defenses and Serratia. Using a tomato mutant, foliar polyphenol oxidase activity likely had stronger impacts on S. marcescens-mediated larval mortality. Induction treatments also elevated the number of bacterial colony-forming units in the hemolymph of larvae inoculated with Serratia. Larval mortality by S. marcescens was low (< 10%) on artificial diets. Our results demonstrate that plant chemical defenses enhance larval mortality from an opportunistic gut microbe. We propose that the combined damage from both the plant and microbial agent overwhelm the herbivore to increase mortality rates and expedite host death.
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Data Availability
Raw data and R files have been made available at the USDA NAL Ag Data Commons: https://doi.org/10.15482/USDA.ADC/1528506
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Acknowledgements
We thank the USDA ARS Tomato Genetics Resource Center for providing mutant tomato seed. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. This research was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. The findings and conclusions in this publication are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy. Mention of trade names or commercial products in this publication is solely for the purpose of providing specific information and does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
Funding
Funding was provided by U.S. Department of Agriculture NIFA Postdoctoral Fellowship 2018–67012-27979 awarded to C.J.M., U.S. Department of Agriculture AFRI Grant 2017–67013-26596 awarded to G.W.F., and Hatch Project Grant PEN04576.
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CJM, KH, & GWF determined the overall objectives; CJM designed the experiments; CJM & MP performed the experiments and collected the data; CJM analyzed the results; CJM wrote the first manuscript draft; KH, MP, & GWF provided editorial input.
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Mason, C.J., Peiffer, M., Hoover, K. et al. Tomato Chemical Defenses Intensify Corn Earworm (Helicoverpa zea) Mortality from Opportunistic Bacterial Pathogens. J Chem Ecol 49, 313–324 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-023-01420-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-023-01420-7