Are the metabolomic responses to folivory of closely related plant species linked to macroevolutionary and plant-folivore coevolutionary processes?

Journal Article · Thu Jun 02 04:00:00 EDT 2016 · Ecology and Evolution

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2206· OSTI ID:1326144

Rivas-Ubach, Albert ^[1]; Hódar, José A. ^[2]; Sardans, Jordi ^[3]; Kyle, Jennifer E. ^[4]; Kim, Young-Mo ^[4]; Oravec, Michal ^[5]; Urban, Otmar ^[5]; Guenther, Alex ^[6]; Peñuelas, Josep ^[3]

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1. Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland Washington 99354 USA; CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès 08913 Catalonia Spain
2. Grupo de Ecología Terrestre, Departamento de Biología Animal y Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada Spain
3. CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès 08913 Catalonia Spain; CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CEAB-CSIC-UAB, Cerdanyola del Vallès 08913 Catalonia Spain
4. Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland Washington 99354 USA
5. Global Change Research Centre, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Bĕlidla 4a CZ-603 00 Brno Czech Republic
6. Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine California 92697 USA

The debate whether the coevolution of plants and insects or macroevolutionary processes (phylogeny) is the main driver determining the arsenal of molecular defensive compounds of plants remains unresolved. Attacks by herbivorous insects affect not only the composition of defensive compounds in plants but the entire metabolome (the set of molecular metabolites), including defensive compounds. Metabolomes are the final products of genotypes and are directly affected by macroevolutionary processes, so closely related species should have similar metabolomic compositions and may respond in similar ways to attacks by folivores. We analyzed the elemental compositions and metabolomes of needles from Pinus pinaster, P. nigra and P. sylvestris to determine if these closely related Pinus species with different coevolutionary histories with the caterpillars of the processionary moth respond similarly to attacks by this lepidopteran. All pines had different metabolomes and metabolic responses to herbivorous attack. The metabolomic variation among the pine species and the responses to folivory reflected their macroevolutionary relationships, with P. pinaster having the most divergent metabolome. The concentrations of phenolic metabolites were generally not higher in the attacked trees, which had lower concentrations of terpenes, suggesting that herbivores avoid individuals with high concentrations of terpenes. Our results suggest that macroevolutionary history plays important roles in the metabolomic responses of these pine species to folivory, but plant-insect coevolution probably constrains those responses. Combinations of different evolutionary factors and trade-offs are likely responsible for the different responses of each species to folivory, which is not necessarily exclusively linked to plant-insect coevolution.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US), Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1326144
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-116150; 48729; KP1704020
• Journal Information: Ecology and Evolution, Journal Name: Ecology and Evolution Journal Issue: 13 Vol. 6; ISSN 2045-7758
• Publisher: Wiley
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory