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Monika Hilker - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • egg laying of cabbage white butterfly Pieris brassicae on arabidopsis thaliana affects subsequent performance of the larvae
    PLOS ONE, 2013
    Co-Authors: Sven Geiselhardt, Kinuyo Yoneya, Beatrice Blenn, Navina Drechsler, Jonathan Gershenzon, Reinhard Kunze, Monika Hilker
    Abstract:

    Plant resistance to the feeding by herbivorous insects has recently been found to be positively or negatively influenced by prior egg deposition. Here we show how crucial it is to conduct experiments on plant responses to herbivory under conditions that simulate natural insect behaviour. We used a well-studied plant – herbivore system, Arabidopsis thaliana and the cabbage white butterfly Pieris brassicae, testing the effects of naturally laid eggs (rather than egg extracts) and allowing larvae to feed gregariously as they do naturally (rather than placing single larvae on plants). Under natural conditions, newly hatched larvae start feeding on their egg shells before they consume leaf tissue, but access to egg shells had no effect on subsequent larval performance in our experiments. However, young larvae feeding gregariously on leaves previously laden with eggs caused less feeding damage, gained less weight during the first 2 days, and suffered twice as high a mortality until pupation compared to larvae feeding on plants that had never had eggs. The concentration of the major anti-herbivore defences of A. thaliana, the glucosinolates, was not significantly increased by oviposition, but the amount of the most abundant member of this class, 4-methylsulfinylbutyl glucosinolate was 1.8-fold lower in larval-damaged leaves with prior egg deposition compared to damaged leaves that had never had eggs. There were also few significant changes in the transcript levels of glucosinolate metabolic genes, except that egg deposition suppressed the feeding-induced up-regulation of FMOGS-OX2, a gene encoding a flavin monooxygenase involved in the last step of 4-methylsulfinylbutyl glucosinolate biosynthesis. Hence, our study demonstrates that oviposition does increase A. thaliana resistance to feeding by subsequently hatching larvae, but this cannot be attributed simply to changes in glucosinolate content.

  • butterfly anti aphrodisiac lures parasitic wasps
    Nature, 2005
    Co-Authors: Marcel Dicke, Joop J A Van Loon, Martinus E Huigens, Nina E Fatouros, Monika Hilker
    Abstract:

    To locate their hosts, parasitic wasps can 'eavesdrop' on the intraspecific chemical communications of their insect hosts1, 2, 3. Here we describe an example in which the information exploited by the parasitic wasp Trichogramma brassicae is a butterfly anti-aphrodisiac that is passed from male to female Pieris brassicae butterflies during mating, to render them less attractive to conspecific males4, 5, 6. When the tiny wasp detects the odour of a mated female butterfly, it rides on her (Fig. 1) to her egg-laying sites and then parasitizes the freshly laid eggs. If this fascinating strategy is widespread in nature, it could severely constrain the evolution of sexual communication between hosts.

Jeffrey A. Harvey - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Development of a solitary koinobiont hyperparasitoid in different instars of its primary and secondary hosts
    Journal of insect physiology, 2016
    Co-Authors: Jeffrey A. Harvey, Erik H. Poelman, F. Zhu, Mark Lammers, Martine Kos, Minghui Fei, Robin Heinen, Rieta Gols
    Abstract:

    Parasitoid wasps are excellent organisms for studying the allocation of host resources to different fitness functions such as adult body mass and development time. Koinobiont parasitoids attack hosts that continue feeding and growing during parasitism, whereas idiobiont parasitoids attack non-growing host stages or paralyzed hosts. Many adult female koinobionts attack a broad range of host stages and are therefore faced with a different set of dynamic challenges compared with idiobionts, where host resources are largely static. Thus far studies on solitary koinobionts have been almost exclusively based on primary parasitoids, yet it is known that many of these are in turn attacked by both koinobiont and idiobiont hyperparasitoids. Here we compare parasitism and development of a primary koinobiont hyperparasitoid, Mesochorus gemellus (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) in larvae of the gregarious primary koinobiont parasitoid, Cotesia glomerata (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) developing in the secondary herbivore host, Pieris brassicae (Lepidoptera: Pieridae). As far as we know this is the first study to examine development of a solitary primary hyperparasitoid in different stages of its secondary herbivore host. Pieris brassicae caterpillars were parasitized as L1 by C. glomerata and then these parasitized caterpillars were presented in separate cohorts to M. gemellus as L3, L4 or L5 instar P. brassicae. Different instars of the secondary hosts were used as proxies for different developmental stages of the primary host, C. glomerata. Larvae of C. glomerata in L5 P. brassicae were significantly longer than those in L3 and L4 caterpillars. Irrespective of secondary host instar, every parasitoid cluster was hyperparasitized by M. gemellus but all only produced male progeny. Male development time decreased with host stage attacked, whereas adult male body mass did not, which shows that M. gemellus is able to optimally exploit older host larvae in terms of adult size despite their decreasing mass during the pupal stage. Across a range of cocoon masses, hyperparasitoid adult male body mass was approximately 84% as large as primary parasitoids, revealing that M. gemellus is almost as efficient at exploiting host resources as secondary (pupal) hyperparasitoids.

  • Effect of food deprivation of L5 Pieris brassicae on the performance of herbivores and parasitoids.
    2016
    Co-Authors: Minghui Fei, Rieta Gols, Feng Zhu, Jeffrey A. Harvey
    Abstract:

    Pupal fresh mass (A) and egg to pupa development time (B) of Pieris brassicae, and adult fresh mass (C) and egg to adult development time (D) of Cotesia glomerata females (black bars) and males (white bars). Bars (means + SE) with different letters are significantly different from each other (Tukey multiple comparisons). Sample sizes per cage (five cages per food deprivation treatment) were for P. brassicae: controls (constant food access): 20; deprived of food for one day: 18–19; two days: 12–20: three days: 6–11; four days: 0–5, and for C. glomerata-parasitized hosts: controls: 8; deprived of food for one day: 7–8; two days: 6–8; three days: 4–8; four days 3–6. For C. glomerata, adult fresh mass and development time was determined for the first 5 males and 5 females eclosing from each host cluster.

  • Plant Quantity Affects Development and Survival of a Gregarious Insect Herbivore and Its Endoparasitoid Wasp - Fig 7
    2016
    Co-Authors: Minghui Fei, Rieta Gols, Feng Zhu, Jeffrey A. Harvey
    Abstract:

    Effect of variable food deprivation period from early (red triangles) or mid (green diamonds) L5 on survival rate of Pieris brassicae (A) and effect of variable food deprivation period of early L5 Pieris brassicae (green diamonds) or Cotesia glomerata (red triangle) (B). Data are based on four replicates each with 20 unparasitized caterpillars and five replicates each with 15 parasitized caterpillars.

  • nonlinear effects of plant root and shoot jasmonic acid application on the performance of Pieris brassicae and its parasitoid cotesia glomerata
    Functional Ecology, 2009
    Co-Authors: Baoli Qiu, Jeffrey A. Harvey, Ciska E Raaijmakers, L E M Vet, Nicole M Van Dam
    Abstract:

    Summary 1Plant species employ several direct and indirect defence strategies to protect themselves against insect herbivores. Most studies, however, have focused on shoot-induced responses. Much less is known about interactions between below- and above-ground herbivores and how these may affect their respective parasitoids. 2Here, we quantify the impact of below-ground induced responses vs. that of above-ground induced responses in a feral Brassica on the performance of Pieris brassicae and its endoparasitoid Cotesia glomerata. Jasmonic acid (JA) was applied to induce the plants above- or below-ground. The glucosinolate, sugar and amino acid levels of the leaves were analysed. 3Pieris brassicae larvae grew significantly slower on shoot JA-induced (SJA) plants than on root JA-induced (RJA) and control plants, which were treated with acidic water. On RJA and control plants they showed similar developmental trajectories. Pupal masses, survival till eclosion and egg load, however, were similar on all plants. 4The development of C. glomerata larvae on SJA plants was significantly longer than that on RJA and control plants. In contrast, the parasitoid's pupal stage lasted longer in hosts feeding on control plants. The total developmental times eventually were similar in all groups. However, the masses of male and female C. glomerata adults that developed hosts on control and RJA plants were significantly larger than those from hosts on SJA plants. JA application increased total glucosinolate contents and decreased the sugars and total amino acids levels independent of whether JA was applied. However, the trajectories of herbivore-induced glucosinolate levels differed between RJA and SJA plants. 5These results show that the differential effects of above- and below-ground-induced responses on herbivores also affect higher trophic levels in a nonlinear fashion via differential changes in host plant quality. In particular, the indirect effects that below-ground herbivores have on the performance of above-ground parasitoids may exceed the direct effects of plant chemistry on herbivore performance. Consequently, above-ground and below-ground interactions mediated by induced plant responses have the potential to mediate insect community structure and function in complex ways.

  • root herbivore effects on above ground herbivore parasitoid and hyperparasitoid performance via changes in plant quality
    Journal of Animal Ecology, 2005
    Co-Authors: Roxina Soler, L E M Vet, Martijn T Bezemer, Wim H Van Der Putten, Jeffrey A. Harvey
    Abstract:

    1. Plants and insects are part of a complex multitrophic environment, in which they closely interact. However, most of the studies have been focused mainly on bi-tritrophic above-ground subsystems, hindering our understanding of the processes that affect multitrophic interactions in a more realistic framework. 2. We studied whether root herbivory by the fly Delia radicum can influence the development of the leaf feeder Pieris brassicae, its parasitoid Cotesia glomerata and its hyperparasitoid Lysibia nana, through changes in primary and secondary plant compounds. 3. In the presence of root herbivory, the development time of the leaf herbivore and the parasitoid significantly increased, and the adult size of the parasitoid and the hyperparasitoid were significantly reduced. The effects were stronger at low root fly densities than at high densities. 4. Higher glucosinolate (sinigrin) levels were recorded in plants exposed to below-ground herbivory, suggesting that the reduced performance of the above-ground insects was via reduced plant quality. Sinigrin contents were highest in plants exposed to low root fly densities, intermediate in plants exposed to high root fly densities and lowest in plants that were not exposed to root herbivory. 5. Our results show, for the first time, that root herbivory via changes in plant quality can reduce the performance of an above-ground multitrophic level food chain. This underlines the importance of integrating a broader range of above- and below-ground organisms to facilitate a better understanding of complex multitrophic interactions and interrelationships. [KEYWORDS: above–below-ground interactions ; Cotesia glomerata ; Lysibia nana ; Pieris brassicae ; plant–insect interactions]

Paula B Andrade - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • brassica oleracea l var costata dc and Pieris brassicae l aqueous extracts reduce methyl methanesulfonate induced dna damage in v79 hamster lung fibroblasts
    Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2012
    Co-Authors: Carla Sousa, Fátima Fernandes, Patricia Valentao, Federico Ferreres, A S Rodrigues, Marta Coelho, Joao Paulo Teixeira, Susana Silva, Paula Guedes De Pinho, Paula B Andrade
    Abstract:

    Brassica oleracea L. var. costata DC leaves and Pieris brassicae L. larvae aqueous extracts were assayed for their potential to prevent/induce DNA damage. None of them was mutagenic at the tested concentrations in the Ames test reversion assay using Salmonella His+ TA98 strains, with and without metabolic activation. In the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase mutation assay using mammalian V79 fibroblast cell line, extracts at 500 μg/mL neither induced mutations nor protected against the mutagenicity caused by methyl methanesulfonate (MMS). In the comet assay, none of the extracts revealed to be genotoxic by itself, and both afforded protection, more pronounced for larvae extracts, against MMS-induced genotoxicity. As genotoxic/antigenotoxic effects of Brassica vegetables are commonly attributed to isothiocyanates, the extracts were screened for these compounds by headspace–solid-phase microextraction/gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. No sulfur compound was detected. These findings demonstr...

  • metabolic profiling and biological capacity of Pieris brassicae fed with kale brassica oleracea l var acephala
    Food and Chemical Toxicology, 2009
    Co-Authors: Federico Ferreres, Fátima Fernandes, Patricia Valentao, Jorge Oliveira, Jose Alberto Pereira, Paula B Andrade
    Abstract:

    Abstract Phenolic and organic acid profiles of aqueous extracts from Pieris brassicae material and the host kale ( Brassica oleracea L. var. acephala ) leaves were determined by HPLC/UV–DAD/MS n -ESI and HPLC–UV, respectively. The identified phenolics included acylated and nonacylated flavonoid glycosides, hydroxycinnamic acyl gentiobiosides, and sulphate phenolics. Kale exhibited the highest content (11 g/kg lyophilized extract), while no phenolics were identified in the butterflies or exuviae. Nine different organic acids were characterized in the materials, with kale showing the highest amount (112 g/kg lyophilized extract). With the exception of the exuviae extract, the rest were screened for bioactivity. Using spectrophotometric microassays, all exhibited antiradical capacity against DPPH and NO in a concentration-dependent way, whereas only kale and excrement extracts were active against superoxide. All displayed activity on intestinal smooth muscle, albeit with distinct relaxation–contraction profiles. Larvae and butterfly extracts were more efficacious for intestinal relaxation than was kale extract, whereas excrement extract evoked only contractions, thus evidencing their different compositions. Collectively, these results show that P. brassicae sequesters and metabolizes kale’s phenolic compounds. Moreover, the extract’s bioactivities suggest that they may constitute an interesting source of bioactive compounds whose complex chemical structures preclude either synthesis or isolation.

  • hplc dad ms ms esi screening of phenolic compounds in Pieris brassicae l reared on brassica rapa var rapa l
    Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2008
    Co-Authors: Federico Ferreres, Patricia Valentao, Jose Alberto Pereira, Albino Bento, Alexandra Noites, Rosa M Seabra, Paula B Andrade
    Abstract:

    The phenolic profiles of cabbage white butterfly (Pieris brassicae L.; Lepidoptera: Pieridae) at different development stages (larvae, exuviae, and butterfly), its excrements, and its host plant Brassica rapa var. rapa L. were determined by high performance liquid chromatography− diode-array detector−mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry−electrospray ionization (HPLC-DAD-MS/MS-ESI). Twenty-five acylated and nonacylated flavonoid glycosides and ferulic and sinapic acids were identified in host plant, from which only 12 compounds were found in the excrements. In addition, the excrements showed the presence of sulfate flavonoids and other flavonoid glycosides that were not detected in the leaves. In the larvae kept without food for 12 h, only 3 compounds common to the plant material and 2 others, also present in the excrements, were characterized. The results indicate that deacylation, deglycosylation, and sulfating steps are involved in the metabolic process of P. brassicae and that its excrements may constit...

Linghuan Gao - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

R. Mumm - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Anti-aphrodisiac Compounds of Male Butterflies Increase the Risk of Egg Parasitoid Attack by Inducing Plant Synomone Production
    2013
    Co-Authors: Nina E Fatouros, Martinus E Huigens, Foteini G Pashalidou, Wilma Aponte V. Cordero, R. Mumm, M. Dicke, W. Aponte V. Cordero, M. Hilker
    Abstract:

    # The Author(s) 2009. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract During mating in many butterfly species, males transfer spermatophores that contain anti-aphrodisiacs to females that repel conspecific males. For example, males of the large cabbage white, Pieris brassicae (Lepidoptera: Pieridae), transfer the anti-aphrodisiac, benzyl cyanide (BC) to females. Accessory reproductive gland (ARG) secretion of a mated female P. brassicae that is deposited with an egg clutch contains traces of BC, inducing Brussels sprouts plants (Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera) to arrest certain Trichogramma egg parasitoids. Here, we assessed whether deposition of one egg at a time by the closely related small cabbage white, Pieris rapae, induced B. oleracea var

  • Risk of Egg Parasitoid Attraction Depends on Anti-aphrodisiac Titre in the Large Cabbage White Butterfly Pieris brassicae
    Journal of Chemical Ecology, 2011
    Co-Authors: Martinus E Huigens, Erik Swart, R. Mumm
    Abstract:

    Males of a variety of insects transfer an anti-aphrodisiac pheromone to females during mating that renders them less attractive to conspecific males. In cabbage white butterflies, the transfer of an anti-aphrodisiac can result in the unwanted attraction of tiny egg parasitoid wasps of the genus Trichogramma that hitch-hike with mated female butterflies to a host plant where they parasitize the freshly laid butterfly eggs. Here, we show that the anti-aphrodisiac benzyl cyanide (BC) of the large cabbage white Pieris brassicae is depleted by frequent display of the mate-refusal posture that signals a female’s unreceptivity to mating. This depletion of BC is ecologically important because it results in a reduced risk of attracting the hitch-hiking egg parasitoid Trichogramma brassicae to mated female butterflies over time since mating. Our results indicate for the first time that a reduction in anti-aphrodisiac titre in mated females due to frequent adoption of the mate-refusal posture is beneficial to both mated females and males particularly when parasitoid pressure is high.