Extrafloral nectary phenotypic plasticity is damage- and resource-dependent in Vicia faba

Phenotypic plasticity enables many damaged plants to increase nectar secretion rates from extrafloral nectaries (EFNs), or in the case of broad bean, Vicia faba L., to produce additional EFNs, to attract natural enemies of herbivores. While plants benefit greatly from these defensive mutualisms, the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biology letters (2005) 2006-12, Vol.2 (4), p.583-585
Main Authors: Mondor, Edward B, Tremblay, Michelle N, Messing, Russell H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ant-Plant Interaction
Carbohydrate Metabolism
Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Herbivory
Inducible Defence
Mutualism
Nectaries
Nitrogen - pharmacology
Phenotype
Phosphorus - pharmacology
Plant Leaves - physiology
Polyphenism
Potassium - pharmacology
Vicia faba
Vicia faba - drug effects
Vicia faba - physiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Phenotypic plasticity enables many damaged plants to increase nectar secretion rates from extrafloral nectaries (EFNs), or in the case of broad bean, Vicia faba L., to produce additional EFNs, to attract natural enemies of herbivores. While plants benefit greatly from these defensive mutualisms, the costs of producing EFNs are largely unknown. We hypothesized that if EFN production is costly, then damaged plants with high resource levels would be able to produce more EFNs than plants that are resource-limited. Here, we show that this indirect inducible defence does follow this general pattern. Vicia faba enriched with 6 or 12 g of 14 : 14 : 14 NPK fertilizer increased EFN numbers after leaf damage by 46 and 60%, respectively, compared with nutrient-poor plants. Thus, EFN production is both damage- and resource-dependent. Analogous to direct defences, production of EFNs may limit the overall loss of leaf tissue when risk of herbivory increases.
ISSN:1744-9561
1744-957X
DOI:10.1098/rsbl.2006.0527