What happens in the pith stays in the pith: tissue-localized defense responses facilitate chemical niche differentiation between two spatially separated herbivores

Abstract

Herbivore attack is known to elicit systemic defense responses that spread throughout the host plant and influence the performance of other herbivores. While these plant-mediated indirect competitive interactions are well described, and the co-existence of herbivores from different feeding guilds is common, the mechanisms of co-existence are poorly understood. In both field and glasshouse experiments with a native tobacco, Nicotiana attenuata, we found no evidence of negative interactions when plants were simultaneously attacked by two spatially separated herbivores: a leaf chewer Manduca sexta and a stem borer Trichobaris mucorea. T.mucorea attack elicited jasmonic acid (JA) and jasmonoyl-l-isoleucine bursts in the pith of attacked stems similar to those that occur in leaves when M. sexta attacks N. attenuata leaves. Pith chlorogenic acid (CGA) levels increased 1000-fold to levels 6-fold higher than leaf levels after T.mucorea attack; these increases in pith CGA levels, which did not occur in M.sexta-attacked leaves, required JA signaling. With plants silenced in CGA biosynthesis (irHQT plants), CGA, as well as other caffeic acid conjugates, was demonstrated in both glasshouse and field experiments to function as a direct defense protecting piths against T.mucorea attack, but not against leaf chewers or sucking insects. T.mucorea attack does not systemically activate JA signaling in leaves, while M.sexta leaf-attack transiently induces detectable but minor pith JA levels that are dwarfed by local responses. We conclude that tissue-localized defense responses allow tissue-specialized herbivores to share the same host and occupy different chemical defense niches in the same hostplant.

Significance Statement Individual plants can provide space for various herbivore communities, and multiple herbivores often colonize different parts of the same plant. This study reveals that plants localize jasmonate-mediated tissue-specific defenses against attack from spatially-separated herbivores thereby creating chemically different feeding niches for the plant's herbivore community.