A Trip Back Home: Resistance to Herbivores of Native and Non-Native Plant Populations of Datura stramonium

Núñez-Farfán, Juan; Velázquez-Márquez, Sabina; Torres-García, Jesús R.; De-la-Cruz, Ivan M.; Arroyo, Juan; Valverde, Pedro L.; Flores-Ortiz, César M.; Hernández-Portilla, Luis B.; López-Cobos, Diana E.; Matías, Javier D.

doi:10.3390/plants13010131

Open AccessArticle

A Trip Back Home: Resistance to Herbivores of Native and Non-Native Plant Populations of Datura stramonium

by

Juan Núñez-Farfán

^1,*

,

Sabina Velázquez-Márquez

¹,

Jesús R. Torres-García

^1,†

,

Ivan M. De-la-Cruz

^1,‡

,

Juan Arroyo

²,

Pedro L. Valverde

³,

César M. Flores-Ortiz

⁴

,

Luis B. Hernández-Portilla

⁴,

Diana E. López-Cobos

¹ and

Javier D. Matías

¹

Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City 04510, Mexico

²

Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Sevilla, 41080 Sevilla, Spain

³

Departament of Biology, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Mexico City 09310, Mexico

⁴

Plant Physiology Laboratory, UBIPRO, FES Iztacala, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Tlalnepantla 54090, Estado de Mexico, Mexico

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

Present address: Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación para el Desarrollo Integral Regional (CIIDIR-IPN-CONAHCYT), Jiquilpan 59510, Michoacán, Mexico.

^‡

Present address: Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 230 53 Alnarp, Sweden.

Plants 2024, 13(1), 131; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13010131

Submission received: 17 October 2023 / Revised: 27 December 2023 / Accepted: 28 December 2023 / Published: 2 January 2024

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evolution of Plant Defence to Herbivores 2nd Edition)

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Abstract

When colonizing new ranges, plant populations may benefit from the absence of the checks imposed by the enemies, herbivores, and pathogens that regulated their numbers in their original range. Therefore, rates of plant damage or infestation by natural enemies are expected to be lower in the new range. Exposing both non-native and native plant populations in the native range, where native herbivores are present, can be used to test whether resistance mechanisms have diverged between populations. Datura stramonium is native to the Americas but widely distributed in Spain, where populations show lower herbivore damage than populations in the native range. We established experiments in two localities in the native range (Mexico), exposing two native and two non-native D. stramonium populations to natural herbivores. Plant performance differed between the localities, as did the abundance of the main specialist herbivore, Lema daturaphila. In Teotihuacán, where L. daturaphila is common, native plants had significantly more adult beetles and herbivore damage than non-native plants. The degree of infestation by the specialist seed predator Trichobaris soror differed among populations and between sites, but the native Ticumán population always had the lowest level of infestation. The Ticumán population also had the highest concentration of the alkaloid scopolamine. Scopolamine was negatively related to the number of eggs deposited by L. daturaphila in Teotihuacán. There was among-family variation in herbivore damage (resistance), alkaloid content (scopolamine), and infestation by L. daturaphila and T. soror, indicating genetic variation and potential for further evolution. Although native and non-native D. stramonium populations have not yet diverged in plant resistance/constitutive defense, the differences between ranges (and the two experimental sites) in the type and abundance of herbivores suggest that further research is needed on the role of resource availability and adaptive plasticity, specialized metabolites (induced, constitutive), and the relationship between genealogical origin and plant defense in both ranges.

Keywords: Datura stramonium; native and non-native populations; invasive species; tobacco flea beetle; datura striped beetle; tobacco weevil; enemy release hypothesis; increased competitive ability; tropane alkaloids; jimsonweed; toloache

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MDPI and ACS Style

Núñez-Farfán, J.; Velázquez-Márquez, S.; Torres-García, J.R.; De-la-Cruz, I.M.; Arroyo, J.; Valverde, P.L.; Flores-Ortiz, C.M.; Hernández-Portilla, L.B.; López-Cobos, D.E.; Matías, J.D. A Trip Back Home: Resistance to Herbivores of Native and Non-Native Plant Populations of Datura stramonium. Plants 2024, 13, 131. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13010131

AMA Style

Núñez-Farfán J, Velázquez-Márquez S, Torres-García JR, De-la-Cruz IM, Arroyo J, Valverde PL, Flores-Ortiz CM, Hernández-Portilla LB, López-Cobos DE, Matías JD. A Trip Back Home: Resistance to Herbivores of Native and Non-Native Plant Populations of Datura stramonium. Plants. 2024; 13(1):131. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13010131

Chicago/Turabian Style

Núñez-Farfán, Juan, Sabina Velázquez-Márquez, Jesús R. Torres-García, Ivan M. De-la-Cruz, Juan Arroyo, Pedro L. Valverde, César M. Flores-Ortiz, Luis B. Hernández-Portilla, Diana E. López-Cobos, and Javier D. Matías. 2024. "A Trip Back Home: Resistance to Herbivores of Native and Non-Native Plant Populations of Datura stramonium" Plants 13, no. 1: 131. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13010131

APA Style

Núñez-Farfán, J., Velázquez-Márquez, S., Torres-García, J. R., De-la-Cruz, I. M., Arroyo, J., Valverde, P. L., Flores-Ortiz, C. M., Hernández-Portilla, L. B., López-Cobos, D. E., & Matías, J. D. (2024). A Trip Back Home: Resistance to Herbivores of Native and Non-Native Plant Populations of Datura stramonium. Plants, 13(1), 131. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13010131

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A Trip Back Home: Resistance to Herbivores of Native and Non-Native Plant Populations of Datura stramonium

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