Plants as green as phones: Novel insights into plant-mediated communication between below- and above-ground insects

TY - JOUR

T1 - Plants as green as phones: Novel insights into plant-mediated communication between below- and above-ground insects

AU - Soler Gamborena, R.

AU - Harvey, J.A.

AU - Bezemer, T.M.

AU - Stuefer, J.F.

N1 - Reporting year: 2008 Metis note: 4335;CTE; MTI; file:///C:/pdfs/PDFS2008/Soler_ea_4335.pdf

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - can act as vertical communication channels or ‘green phones’ linking soil-dwelling insects and insects in the aboveground ecosystem. When root-feeding insects attack a plant, the direct defense system of the shoot is activated, leading to an accumulation of phytotoxins in the leaves. The protection of the plant shoot elicited by root damage can impair the survival, growth and development of aboveground insect herbivores, thereby creating plant-based functional links between soil-dwelling insects and insects that develop in the aboveground ecosystem. The interactions between spatially separated insects below- and aboveground are not restricted to root and foliar plant-feeding insects, but can be extended to higher trophic levels such as insect parasitoids. Here we discuss some implications of plants acting as communication channels or ‘green phones’ between root and foliar-feeding insects and their parasitoids, focusing on recent findings that plants attacked by root-feeding insects are significantly less attractive for the parasitoids of foliar-feeding insects.

AB - can act as vertical communication channels or ‘green phones’ linking soil-dwelling insects and insects in the aboveground ecosystem. When root-feeding insects attack a plant, the direct defense system of the shoot is activated, leading to an accumulation of phytotoxins in the leaves. The protection of the plant shoot elicited by root damage can impair the survival, growth and development of aboveground insect herbivores, thereby creating plant-based functional links between soil-dwelling insects and insects that develop in the aboveground ecosystem. The interactions between spatially separated insects below- and aboveground are not restricted to root and foliar plant-feeding insects, but can be extended to higher trophic levels such as insect parasitoids. Here we discuss some implications of plants acting as communication channels or ‘green phones’ between root and foliar-feeding insects and their parasitoids, focusing on recent findings that plants attacked by root-feeding insects are significantly less attractive for the parasitoids of foliar-feeding insects.

U2 - 10.4161/psb.3.8.6338

DO - 10.4161/psb.3.8.6338

M3 - Article

SN - 1559-2316

VL - 3

SP - 519

EP - 520

JO - Plant Signaling & Behavior

JF - Plant Signaling & Behavior

ER -