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Salicylic acid-mediated reductions in yield in Nicotiana attenuata challenged by aphid herbivory

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Abstract

Aphid herbivory decreases primary production in natural ecosystems and reduces crop yields. The mechanism for how aphids reduce yield is poorly understood as some studies suggest aphid feeding directly impedes photosynthesis, whereas other studies suggest a change in allocation of resources from growth to defense compounds reduces yield. To determine the mechanisms underlying reduced plant growth by aphids, Nicotiana attenuata plants, native tobacco, were infested with Myzus persicae ssp. nicotianae, tobacco-adapted green peach aphids, at low and high densities, and plant performance including fitness was assessed. To test the direct defense capacity of salicylic acid (SA) on aphid performance, we fed aphids an artificial diet with varying levels of SA and measured their survivorship and fecundity. There was no detectable effect of aphid herbivory on net photosynthesis, yet herbivory reduced plant growth, final biomass (43 % at high aphid density), and seed set (18 % at high aphid density) at both low and high aphid infestation levels. High-density aphid attack during the rosette and flowering stage caused an increase in SA levels, but caused only a transient decrease in jasmonic acid concentration at low aphid density. SA concentrations similar to those found in infested flowering plants decreased aphid fecundity, suggesting that SA was an effective chemical defense response against aphids. These results suggest that as aphid densities increased the proximal cause of reduced growth and yield was not reduced photosynthesis, but instead resources may have been mobilized for defense via the SA pathway, decreasing the availability of resources for building plant biomass.

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Acknowledgments

We thank PJ Semtner of Virginia Tech University for providing us with M. persicae to begin a colony and IT Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, for providing us with N. attenuata genotypes. We also thank D Bilgin for DAB staining and providing images and thank lab members for constructive comments on an earlier draft. This research was supported in part by grants from the U.S. Department of Energy (No. DE-FG02-04ER63489) and by USDA grant #2002-02723.

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  1. Department of Plant Biology, Institute of Genomic Biology, University of Illinois, 1206 W Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Michael P. Donovan, Paul D. Nabity & Evan H. DeLucia

  2. 286 Morrill Hall 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Evan H. DeLucia

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  1. Michael P. Donovan
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Correspondence to Evan H. DeLucia.

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Donovan, M.P., Nabity, P.D. & DeLucia, E.H. Salicylic acid-mediated reductions in yield in Nicotiana attenuata challenged by aphid herbivory. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 7, 45–52 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-012-9220-5

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