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Abstract Plant–herbivore interactions mediated by plant–plant signalling have been documented in different species but its within‐species variability has hardly been quantified. Here, we tested if herbivore foraging activity on plants was influenced by a prior contact with a damaged plant and if the effect of such plant–plant signalling was variable across 113 natural genotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana. We filmed the activity of the generalist herbivore Cornu aspersum during 1 h on two plants differing only in a prior contact with a damaged plant or not. We recorded each snails' first choice, and measured its first duration on a plant, the proportion of time spent on both plants and leaf consumption. Overall, plant–plant signalling modified the foraging activity of herbivores in A. thaliana. On average, snails spent more time and consumed more of plants that experienced a prior contact with a damaged plant. However, the effects of plant–plant signalling on snail behaviour was variable: depending on genotype identity, plant–plant signalling made undamaged plants more repellant or attractive to snails. Genome‐wide associations revealed that genes related to stress coping ability and jasmonate pathway were associated to this variation. Together, our findings highlight the adaptive significance of plant–plant signalling for plant–herbivore interactions.

Data from functional trait databases have been increasingly used to address questions related to plant diversity and trait-environment relationships. However, such databases provide intraspecific data that combine individual records obtained from distinct populations at different sites and, hence, environmental conditions. This prevents distinguishing sources of variation (e.g., genetic-based variation vs. phenotypic plasticity), a necessary condition to test for adaptive processes and other determinants of plant phenotypic diversity. Consequently, individual traits measured under common growing conditions and encompassing within-species variation across the occupied geographic range have the potential to leverage trait databases with valuable data for functional and evolutionary ecology. Here, we recorded 16 functional traits and leaf hyperspectral reflectance (NIRS) data for 721 widely distributed Arabidopsis thaliana natural accessions grown in a common garden experiment. These data records, together with meteorological variables obtained during the experiment, were assembled to create the AraDiv dataset. AraDiv is a comprehensive dataset of A. thaliana's intraspecific variability that can be explored to address questions at the interface of genetics and ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant–herbivore interactions mediated by plant–plant signalling have been documented in different species but its within‐species variability has hardly been quantified. Here, we tested if herbivore foraging activity on plants was influenced by a prior contact with a damaged plant and if the effect of such plant–plant signalling was variable across 113 natural genotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana. We filmed the activity of the generalist herbivore Cornu aspersum during 1 h on two plants differing only in a prior contact with a damaged plant or not. We recorded each snails' first choice, and measured its first duration on a plant, the proportion of time spent on both plants and leaf consumption. Overall, plant–plant signalling modified the foraging activity of herbivores in A. thaliana. On average, snails spent more time and consumed more of plants that experienced a prior contact with a damaged plant. However, the effects of plant–plant signalling on snail behaviour was variable: depending on genotype identity, plant–plant signalling made undamaged plants more repellant or attractive to snails. Genome‐wide associations revealed that genes related to stress coping ability and jasmonate pathway were associated to this variation. Together, our findings highlight the adaptive significance of plant–plant signalling for plant–herbivore interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]