Urbaneja-Bernat Pablo, Salazar-Mendoza Paolo, Tena Alejandro, González-Cabrera Joel, Rodriguez-Saona Cesar
IRTA, Sustainable Plant Protection Program Ctra. de Cabrils Km 2, Cabrils (Barcelona), 08348, Spain.
Department of Entomology and Acarology, "Luiz de Queiroz" College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, SP, 13418-900, Brazil.
J Chem Ecol. 2025 Apr 30;51(3):51. doi: 10.1007/s10886-025-01602-5.
Domestication often alters plant traits, leading to cascading effects on ecological interactions, particularly in tri-trophic relationships among plants, herbivores, and their natural enemies. While recent studies have investigated the influence of domestication on plant-derived food sources, its effect on guttation-a nutrient-rich exudate produced by many plants-remains unexplored. In this study, we examined the effects of guttation droplets from wild and cultivated highbush blueberries on the fitness (longevity and fecundity) and feeding preferences of three insect species from different trophic guilds: an herbivore (Drosophila suzukii), a parasitoid (Trichopria drosophilae), and a predator (Chrysoperla carnea). Additionally, we analyzed and compared the size and nutritional composition-specifically, total sugar and protein content-of guttation droplets between wild and cultivated blueberry plants. Our results indicated that guttation from wild plants enhanced the longevity of all three insect species, often surpassing that of cultivated plants and diets containing only sugar or sugar plus protein. In choice assays, all three insect species consistently preferred guttation from wild plants over that from cultivated ones. Although the guttation droplets from cultivated plants were larger, those from wild plants contained higher concentrations of sugars (six times more) and proteins (five times more), which likely contributed to the insects' enhanced fitness and preference for wild plant guttation. These findings indicate that domestication has reduced the ecological functionality of guttation in blueberries by potentially influencing tri-trophic interactions. Understanding how domestication affects plant-derived food sources like guttation could have important implications for the conservation of natural enemies in agricultural landscapes.
驯化常常会改变植物的性状，从而对生态相互作用产生连锁反应，尤其是在植物、食草动物及其天敌之间的三营养关系中。虽然最近的研究调查了驯化对植物衍生食物来源的影响，但其对吐水（许多植物产生的一种富含营养的渗出液）的影响仍未得到探索。在本研究中，我们研究了野生和栽培的高丛蓝莓的吐水液滴对来自不同营养级类群的三种昆虫的适合度（寿命和繁殖力）及取食偏好的影响：一种食草动物（铃木果蝇）、一种寄生蜂（果蝇特里科里亚）和一种捕食者（绿草蛉）。此外，我们分析并比较了野生和栽培蓝莓植物吐水液滴的大小和营养成分，具体而言，即总糖和蛋白质含量。我们的结果表明，野生植物的吐水提高了所有三种昆虫的寿命，通常超过了栽培植物以及仅含糖类或糖类加蛋白质的食物。在选择试验中，所有三种昆虫始终更偏好野生植物的吐水而非栽培植物的吐水。尽管栽培植物的吐水液滴更大，但野生植物的吐水含有更高浓度的糖类（多六倍）和蛋白质（多五倍），这可能是昆虫适合度提高以及偏好野生植物吐水的原因。这些发现表明，驯化可能通过影响三营养相互作用降低了蓝莓吐水的生态功能。了解驯化如何影响像吐水这样的植物衍生食物来源，可能对农业景观中天敌的保护具有重要意义。
