Induction of the sticky plant defense syndrome in wild tobacco

Many plants engage in protective mutualisms, offering resources such as extrafloral nectar and shelters to predatory arthropods in exchange for protection against herbivores. Recent work indicates that sticky plants catch small insects and provide this carrion to predators who defend the plants agai...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology (Durham) 2019-08, Vol.100 (8), p.1-9
Main Authors: Karban, Richard, LoPresti, Eric, Pepi, Adam, Grof-Tisza, Patrick
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Arthropods
Bioassays
Breeding success
Carrion
Environmental risk
Flowers
Herbivores
Herbivory
induced defense
Insecta
Insects
Leaves
Mutualism
Nectar
Nicotiana
Nicotiana attenuata
plant fitness
Plant Leaves
Plant Nectar
Plant protection
Plant tissues
Plants (botany)
Predators
protective mutualism
Reproduction
Rosette
Structural equation modeling
structural equation modeling
Tobacco
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Summary:Many plants engage in protective mutualisms, offering resources such as extrafloral nectar and shelters to predatory arthropods in exchange for protection against herbivores. Recent work indicates that sticky plants catch small insects and provide this carrion to predators who defend the plants against herbivores. In this study, we investigated whether wild tobacco, Nicotiana attenuata, fits this sticky plant defense syndrome that has been described for other sticky plants. We developed a bioassay for stickiness involving the number of flies that adhered to flowers, the stickiest tissues. In surveys conducted over three field seasons at four sites, we found that the number of carrion that adhered to a plant was positively correlated with the number of predators that we observed foraging over its surfaces. The number of predators was positively correlated with the number of seed capsules that the plant produced, a measure of lifetime female reproductive success. Structural equation modeling indicated strong support for the causal path linking carrion numbers to predator numbers to capsule production. We investigated whether stickiness was an inducible trait and examined two potential cues. We found that experimental clipping of rosette leaves induced greater stickiness, although clipping of neighboring sagebrush leaves did not. Damage to leaf tissue is likely to be a more reliable predictor of risk than is damage to a neighboring plant. The sticky plant defense syndrome is a widespread protective mutualism; its strength and ecological relevance can adjust as risk of herbivory changes.
ISSN:0012-9658
1939-9170
DOI:10.1002/ecy.2746