Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Elife. 2021 Apr 20;10:e65575. doi: 10.7554/eLife.65575.
Insect herbivores use different cues to locate host plants. The importance of CO in this context is not well understood. We manipulated CO perception in western corn rootworm (WCR) larvae through RNAi and studied how CO perception impacts their interaction with their host plant. The expression of a carbon dioxide receptor, , is specifically required for dose-dependent larval responses to CO. Silencing CO perception or scrubbing plant-associated CO has no effect on the ability of WCR larvae to locate host plants at short distances (<9 cm), but impairs host location at greater distances. WCR larvae preferentially orient and prefer plants that grow in well-fertilized soils compared to plants that grow in nutrient-poor soils, a behaviour that has direct consequences for larval growth and depends on the ability of the larvae to perceive root-emitted CO. This study unravels how CO can mediate plant-herbivore interactions by serving as a distance-dependent host location cue.
昆虫食草动物利用不同的线索来定位宿主植物。在这方面，CO 的重要性还不是很清楚。我们通过 RNAi 操纵西方玉米根虫（WCR）幼虫对 CO 的感知，并研究 CO 感知如何影响它们与宿主植物的相互作用。二氧化碳受体 的表达对 CO 的剂量依赖性幼虫反应是特异性必需的。沉默 CO 感知或清除与植物相关的 CO 对 WCR 幼虫在短距离（<9 cm）定位宿主植物的能力没有影响，但会损害在更大距离定位宿主植物的能力。与生长在贫瘠土壤中的植物相比，WCR 幼虫更喜欢定向和偏好生长在肥沃土壤中的植物，这种行为对幼虫的生长有直接影响，并且取决于幼虫感知根发出的 CO 的能力。这项研究揭示了 CO 如何通过作为一种依赖距离的宿主定位线索来调节植物-食草动物的相互作用。
