Lessons from the Far End: Caterpillar FRASS-Induced Defenses in Maize, Rice, Cabbage, and Tomato

Authors

Swayamjit Ray, Pennsylvania State UniversityFollow
Saumik Basu, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Loren J. Rivera-Vega, Pennsylvania State UniversityFollow
Flor E. Acevedo, Pennsylvania State UniversityFollow
Joe Louis, University of Nebraska–LincolnFollow
Gary W. Felton, Pennsylvania State UniversityFollow
Dawn S. Luthe, Pennsylvania State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

10-4-2016

Citation

Published in Journal of Chemical Ecology 42 (2016), pp. 1130–1141 doi:10.1007/s10886-016-0776-x

Comments

Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York. Used by permission.

Abstract

Plant defenses to insect herbivores have been studied in response to several insect behaviors on plants such as feeding, crawling, and oviposition. However, we have only scratched the surface about how insect feces induce plant defenses. In this study, we measured frass-induced plant defenses in maize, rice, cabbage, and tomato by chewing herbivores such as European corn borer (ECB), fall armyworm (FAW), cabbage looper (CL), and tomato fruit worm (TFW). We observed that caterpillar frass induced plant defenses are specific to each host-herbivore system, and they may induce herbivore or pathogen defense responses in the host plant depending on the composition of the frass deposited on the plant, the plant organ where it is deposited, and the species of insect. This study adds another layer of complexity in plant-insect interactions where analysis of frass-induced defenses has been neglected even in host-herbivore systems where naturally frass accumulates in enclosed feeding sites over extended periods of time.