Search

An essential component of plant defense is the change that occurs from a constitutive to an induced state following damage or infection. Exogenous application of the plant hormone methyl jasmonate (MeJA) has shown great potential to be used as a defense inducer prior to pest exposure, and could be used as a plant protection measure. Here, we examined (1) the importance of MeJA-mediated induction for Norway spruce (Picea abies) resistance against damage by the pine weevil Hylobius abietis, which poses a threat to seedling survival, and infection by the spruce bark beetle-associated blue-stain fungus Endoconidiophora polonica, (2) genotypic variation in MeJA-induced defense (terpene chemistry), and (3) correlations among resistance to each pest. In a semi-field experiment, we exposed rooted-cuttings from nine different Norway spruce clones to insect damage and fungal infection separately. Plants were treated with 0, 25, or 50 mM MeJA, and planted in blocks where only pine weevils were released, or in a separate block in which plants were fungus-inoculated or not (control group). As measures of resistance, stem area debarked and fungal lesion lengths were assessed, and as a measure of defensive capacity, terpene chemistry was examined. We found that MeJA treatment increased resistance to H. abietis and E. polonica, but effects varied with clone. Norway spruce clones that exhibited high constitutive resistance did not show large changes in area debarked or lesion length when MeJA-treated, and vice versa. Moreover, insect damage negatively correlated with fungal infection. Clones receiving little pine weevil damage experienced larger lesion lengths, and vice versa, both in the constitutive and induced states. Changes in absolute terpene concentrations occurred with MeJA treatment (but not on proportional terpene concentrations), however, variation in chemistry was mostly explained by differences between clones. We conclude that MeJA can enhance protection against H. abie

Inducibility of defences in response to biotic stimuli is considered an important trait in plant resistance. In conifers, previous research has mostly focused on the inducibility of the volatile fraction of the oleoresin (mono- and sesquiterpenes), leaving the inducibility of the nonvolatile resin acids largely unexplored, particularly in response to real herbivory. Here we investigated the differences in the inducibility of resin acids in two pine species, one native from Europe (Pinus pinaster Ait.) and another from North America (Pinus radiata D. Don), in response to wounding by two European insects: a bark chewer, the pine weevil (Hylobius abietis L.), and a defoliator, the pine processionary caterpillar (Thaumetopoea pityocampa Schiff.). We quantified the constitutive (control) and induced concentrations of resin acids in the stem and needles of both pine species by gas chromatography techniques. Both pine species strongly increased the concentration of resin acids in the stem after pine weevil feeding, although the response was greater in P. pinaster than in P. radiata. However, systemic defensive responses in the needles were negligible in both pine species after pine weevil feeding in the stem. On the other hand, P. radiata locally reduced the resin acid concentration in the needles after pine caterpillar feeding, whereas in P. pinaster resin acid concentration was apparently unaffected. Nevertheless, systemic induction of resin acids was only observed in the stem of P. pinaster in response to pine caterpillar feeding. In summary, pine induced responses were found highly compartmentalized, and specific to herbivore identity. Particularly, plant defence suppression mechanisms by the pine caterpillar, and ontogenetic factors might be potentially affecting the induced response of resin acids in both pine species., QC 20200622

QC 20181009

Following an herbivore attack plants can reduce damage by inducing a wide variety of highly specific chemical and physical defences. Plants are able to recognize, integrate and respond accordingly in a specific manner to the biotic stimuli provoked by different herbivore species. This specificity of induced defences is particularly important for long-lived plants (e.g. pines) which have to face against multiple biological aggressions during their life cycle. In this sense, it has been recently documented that induction of mono- and sesquiterpenes (the volatile fraction of oleoresin) in pine trees is specific to plant species, herbivore identity and plant tissue. However, much less attention has been paid to understand the sources of phenotypic variation of diterpenes, the non-volatile fraction of oleoresin that seals the wounds after oxidization.

Pine trees are long -lived, widespread organisms that have to cope with multiple biotic stresses during their life cycle. To face against biological aggressions pine trees harbour terpenoids and phenolics as major chemical defences that may avoid or deter the attack providing resistance. Mono and sesquiterpenes, the volatile fraction of oleoresin, have been found to be adaptive resistance traits and to differ between and within species. However much less attention has been paid to sources of phenotypic variation in diterpenes, the non- volatile fraction of oleoresin that seals the stem wounds after oxidization. We examined the induced defensive responses of the diterpene fraction in two pine species, one native (Maritime pine) and one exotic (Monterey pine) to Europe, against two native insect herbivores, the bark chewing pine weevil and the pine processionary caterpillar; and explored the association between the induced chemical profile of diterpenes in each species and the subsequent damage. We found that the two pine species showed different constitutive and induced diterpene concentration in stem and needles. Whereas Pinus pinaster increased total di terpene concentration only in the stem against the two herbivores, P. radiata diterpene defences were locally induced in the damaged tissue due to herbivore feeding activity. Regarding to the chemical diterpene profile, the native P. pinaster produced a ge neral induced response increasing diterpene concentration against the two herbivores in the stem, whereas the exotic P. radiata showed a weevil -induced increase and a caterpillar -induced decrease in the most abundant diterpenes in the needles.

Only in Sweden 360 million conifer seedlings are planted each year but a substantial proportion of these are killed by pine weevils (Hylobius abietis) and black spruce beetles (Hylastes cunicularius). A high survival rate is essential for a high primary production of forest raw materials and biomass. There is currently no suitable non-insecticide plant protection option for a large part of these seedlings. One option may, however, be to trigger the seedlings´ own induced defense by treating them with a plant activator at the nursery so that they are prepared when they later becomes attacked by pine weevils in the field. The induced defense is under natural conditions generally expressed after damage by, e.g. a pest insect, whereas constitutive defenses are permanently present. Constitutive defenses serves to inhibit an initial attack whereas the induced defense serves to actively and vigorously stop the attack. The induced defense is powerful but the time lag after an initial attack before the induced defenses are fully expressed may be detrimental for a plant when the pest pressure is high. This weakness of the induced defense can be circumvented by applying a plant activator to trigger the induced defense of the plant before it is exposed to attacks. There is a suitable plant activator to trigger the induced defense of conifers available. That is methyl jasmonate which is a substance that also is produced naturally when a plant is attacked. It triggers the production of traumatic resin channels and different types of chemical defense substances. In this talk I will present some recent results related to the potential of this method to protect conifer seedlings against pine weevils.

There is increasing evidence that plants can react to biotic aggressions with highly specific responses. However, few studies have attempted to jointly investigate whether the induction of plant defences is specific to a targeted plant tissue, plant species, herbivore identity, and defensive trait. Here we studied those factors contributing to the specificity of induced defensive responses in two economically impor- tant pine species against two chewing insect pest herbivores. Juvenile trees of Pinus pinaster andP. radiata were exposed to herbivory by two major pest threats, the large pine weevil Hylobius abietis (a bark-fee- der) and the pine processionary caterpillar Thaumetopoea pityocampa (a folivore). We quantified in two tissues (stem and needles) the constitutive (control plants) and herbivore-induced concentrations of total polyphenolics, volatile and non-volatile resin, as well as the profile of mono- and sesquiterpenes. Stem chewing by the pine weevil increased concentrations of non-volatile resin, volatile monoterpenes, and (marginally) polyphenolics in stem tissues. Weevil feeding also increased the concentration of non-vol- atile resin and decreased polyphenolics in the needle tissues. Folivory by the caterpillar had no major effects on needle defensive chemistry, but a strong increase in the concentration of polyphenolics in the stem. Interestingly, we found similar patterns for all these above-reported effects in both pine spe- cies. These results offer convincing evidence that induced defences are highly specific and may vary depending on the targeted plant tissue, the insect herbivore causing the damage and the considered defensive compound.

QC 20120202

In large parts of Europe insecticide-free measures for protecting conifer plants are desired to suppress damage by the pine weevil Hylobius abietis (L.). Treatment with methyl jasmonate (MeJA), a chemical elicitor already used in crop production, may enhance expression of chemical defenses in seedlings in conifer regenerations. However, in a previous experiment MeJA treatment resulted in substantially better field protection for Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) than for Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.). Hypothesizing that the variations may be at least partly due to volatiles released by MeJA-treated seedlings and their effects on pine weevil orientation, we examined tissue extracts of seedlings (from the same batches as previously used) by two-dimensional GC-MS. We found that the MeJA treatment increased contents of the monoterpene (-)-β-pinene in phloem (the weevil’s main target tissue) of both tree species, however, the (-)-β-pinene/(-)-α-pinene ratio increased more in the phloem of P. sylvestris. We also tested the attractiveness of individual monoterpenes found in conifer tissues (needles and phloem) for pine weevils using an arena with traps baited with single-substance dispensers and pine twigs. Trap catches were reduced when the pine material was combined with a dispenser releasing (-)-β-pinene, (+)-3-carene, (-)-bornyl acetate or 1,8-cineole. However, (-)-α-pinene did not have this effect. Thus, the greater field protection of MeJA-treated P. sylvestris seedlings may be due to the selective induction of increases in contents of the deterrent (-)-β-pinene, in contrast to strong increases in both non-deterrent (-)-α-pinene and the deterrent (-)-β-pinene in P. abies seedlings., QS 2016

Chemical defenses of conifers can be experimentally activated to respond more efficiently to feeding damage by insects. One chemical elicitor that triggers plant defenses, and thereby protects conifers, is methyl jasmonate (MeJA). However, there is little known about the associations between MeJA-induced conifer defenses, and the meal properties of phytophagous insects. To address this knowledge gap, we have analyzed relations between volatile contents of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) tissues, and meal properties of the pine weevil (Hylobius abietis (L.)). Phloem and needles (both weevil target tissues) from MeJA-treated and control seedlings were extracted by n-hexane and analyzed by two-dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (2D GC-MS). Feeding of pine weevils on seedlings from the same batches were video-recorded to determine meal properties. Multivariate statistical analyses showed that phloem and needle contents of MeJA-treated seedlings had different volatile compositions from the control seedlings. Levels of (+)-α-pinene were high, and levels of the antifeedant 2-phenylethanol were low, in phloem of control seedlings with feeding damage. Accordingly, pine weevils fed more slowly and had shorter meals on MeJA-treated seedlings. In addition, the chemical compositions of phloem and needles – and accordingly weevil meal durations on them – were more similar in MeJA-treated seedlings than in controls. The results illustrate that detailed knowledge of insect responses can help efforts to identify and elucidate specific roles of resistance agents in complex chemical profiles., First and second author contributed equally to this work.QS 2016

The feeding preference of the pine weevil to Maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.) and Monterey pine (Pinus radiata D. Don) differ in laboratory tests and in the field: Can this be explained by the volatile compounds released by the seedlings? Understanding the interaction between the chemical defenses of young pines and feeding preferences of the pine weevil (Hylobius abietis (L.)) may improve protection methods of conifer seedlings in Europe and Asia. In order to increase the resistance of seedlings of P. pinaster and P. radiata, these were treated with the chemical elicitor methyl jasmonate (MeJA). The effects of the MeJA treatments on the amounts and composition of volatile terpenes in tissues (needles and phloem) were investigated by extracting these in hexane, whereafter the volatile constituents of the extracts were separated and identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In addition, the most abundant monoterpenes (α-pinene and β-pinene) were separated on a chiral column in their enantiomers. Already at the lowest concentration of MeJA treatment, 5 mM, the amounts of volatile terpenes in the needles of P. radiata increased and the seedling heights were reduced. In P. pinaster, on the other hand, no effect from the MeJA treatment was observed on the total volatile terpenes in the needles, and only at the strongest MeJA concentration, the seedling heights were affected. In the phloem of P. pinaster the composition of volatile contents, changed after MeJA treatment, showing a reduction in the (+)-α-pinene. In contrast, the amounts of (+)-α-pinene increased in P. radiata. In a previous study, controls and MeJA-treated pine seedlings, from the same MeJA treatment batches as in this study, were subjected to a field trial. In the field, the pine weevils preferred the seedlings of P. radiata over those of P. pinaster. We propose that the differences in induction of (+)-α-pinene may be important for explaining the differences in pine weevil feeding pre, QS 2016