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Plants Interacting with other Organisms: Insects

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A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Protection and Biotic Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 October 2018) | Viewed by 24034

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Jurgen Engelberth

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Guest Editor

Department of Biology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA
Interests: plant–insect interaction; plant defense; biology of green leaf volatiles; plant–plant interaction; volatile organic compounds; defense signaling; metabolism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

More than 350 millions of years of co-evolution have created a complex relationship between plants and insects. While these interactions can be both beneficial and detrimental, intricate and dynamic regulatory networks have been established between these two groups.

The complexities of these interactions are being studied on all levels and significant progress has been made towards the elucidation of mechanisms that regulate defense responses against insect herbivores, the identification of traits that govern beneficial plant-insect interactions, studies towards the ecological complexity and evolutionary origin of these interactions and the potential impact of these findings for agricultural settings.

For this Special Issue, review and research papers are invited from scientists working on diverse aspects of plant-insect interactions, which may include, but are not limited to, identifying chemical cues that regulate these interactions, the elucidation of signal transduction pathways, the ecological impact of insect herbivory, the role of beneficial insects for the survival of plants, adaptation and evolution in plant–insect interactions, and the application of this knowledge for sustainable agriculture.

Dr. Jurgen Engelberth
Guest Editor

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

mutualism
herbivory
tritrophic interactions
elicitors
plant volatiles
direct defense
indirect defense
adaptation
co-evolution
ecology
signaling
transcriptional regulation
priming
sustainability
plants
insects
phenotypic plasticity

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 2153 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Costs of Green Leaf Volatile-Induced Defense Priming: Temporal Diversity in Growth Responses to Mechanical Wounding and Insect Herbivory

by Jurgen Engelberth and Marie Engelberth

Plants 2019, 8(1), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants8010023 - 18 Jan 2019

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 6597

Abstract

Green leaf volatiles (GLVs) have long been associated with plant defense responses against insect herbivory. Although some of their biological activities appear to directly affect the attacking herbivore, one of the major functions of GLVs seems to be the priming of these defense responses. This priming is generally considered to impose low costs on the plant should no direct attack happen. Here, we demonstrate that priming of maize seedlings with GLVs is costly for the plants as it results in significantly reduced growth. We further demonstrate that priming very selectively affects growth responses after insect elicitor treatment and mechanical wounding depending on the age and/or the developmental stage of the treated plant. The differential growth response of maize seedlings to treatment with GLVs and subsequent herbivory-related damage sheds new light on the biological activity of these important plant volatile compounds and indicates consequences that go beyond defense. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plants Interacting with other Organisms: Insects)

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11 pages, 1889 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Isolation and Characterization of Plant Growth-Promoting Endophytic Fungi from the Roots of Dendrobium moniliforme

by Sujit Shah, Roshani Shrestha, Sabitri Maharjan, Marc-Andre Selosse and Bijaya Pant

Plants 2019, 8(1), 5; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants8010005 - 28 Dec 2018

Cited by 78 | Viewed by 12551

Abstract

The present study aims to identify the diverse endophytic fungi residing in the roots of Dendrobium moniliforme and their role in plant growth and development. Nine endophytic fungi were isolated from the root sections and characterized by molecular technique. Quantification of the indole acetic acid (IAA) compound by these endophytes was done. Further, Chemical profiling of R11 and R13 fungi was done by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS). Asymbiotic seed derived protocorms of Rhynchostylis retusa was used for the plant growth assay to investigate the growth promoting activities of the fungal elicitor prepared from the isolated fungi from D. moniliforme. Among the isolated fungi, the relative dominant fungus was Fusarium sp. The R13 and R6 fungi were identified only at the genus level which concludes the fungi are of new species or strain. The indole acetic acid production was relatively higher in R10. Bioactive compound diversity was observed in the organic extract of R11 and R6. The presence of phenolic compound and essential oil suggest their contribution for the antimicrobial and antioxidant properties to their host plant, D. moniliforme. The plant growth assay result concluded, the fungal elicitor prepared from R10, Colletotrichum alatae was the best among all other for the plant growth activities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plants Interacting with other Organisms: Insects)

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Review

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18 pages, 2392 KiB

Open AccessReview

Should I Eat or Should I Go? Acridid Grasshoppers and Their Novel Host Plants: Potential for Biotic Resistance

by Alina Avanesyan

Plants 2018, 7(4), 83; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants7040083 - 07 Oct 2018

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4380

Abstract

Novel, non-coevolved associations between introduced plants and native insect herbivores may lead to changes in trophic interactions in native communities, as well as to substantial economic problems. Although some studies in invasion ecology demonstrated that native herbivores can preferentially feed on introduced plants and therefore contribute to the biotic resistance of native communities to plant invasions, the role of acridid grasshoppers as native generalist insect herbivores is largely overlooked. This systematic review aimed to identify patterns of grasshopper feeding preferences for native versus introduced plants and, consequently, a potential of grasshoppers to provide biotic resistance of native communities. The analysis of 63 records of feeding preference trials for 28 North-American grasshopper species (retrieved from 2146 studies published during 1967–2017) has demonstrated a preference of grasshoppers for introduced host plants, and identified 12 preferred introduced plants with high or middle invasive ranks. A significant effect of the life stage (p < 0.001), but not the experimental environment, plant material, and measurements, on grasshopper preferences for introduced plants was also detected. Overall, results suggest a potential of acridid grasshoppers to contribute to the biotic resistance of native communities. The review also provides methodological recommendations for future experimental studies on grasshopper-host plant interactions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plants Interacting with other Organisms: Insects)

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