Journal
PLANT CELL AND ENVIRONMENT
Volume 37, Issue 11, Pages 2613-2622Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL
DOI: 10.1111/pce.12359
Keywords
Diabrotica virgifera; (CO2)-C-11; compensatory root growth; plant herbivore interactions
Categories
Funding
- Swiss National Science Foundation [FN 31000AO-107974, 140196]
- Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship [273107]
- Organismal Biology Doctoral Program of the University of Neuchatel
- Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC [DE-AC02-98CH10886]
- US Department of Energy, Office of Biological and Environmental Research
- Max Planck Society
- National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) 'Plant Survival', a research programme of the Swiss National Science Foundation
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Upon attack by leaf herbivores, many plants reallocate photoassimilates below ground. However, little is known about how plants respond when the roots themselves come under attack. We investigated induced resource allocation in maize plants that are infested by the larvae Western corn rootworm Diabrotica virgifera virgifera. Using radioactive (CO2)-C-11, we demonstrate that root-attacked maize plants allocate more new C-11 carbon from source leaves to stems, but not to roots. Reduced meristematic activity and reduced invertase activity in attacked maize root systems are identified as possible drivers of this shoot reallocation response. The increased allocation of photoassimilates to stems is shown to be associated with a marked thickening of these tissues and increased growth of stem-borne crown roots. A strong quantitative correlation between stem thickness and root regrowth across different watering levels suggests that retaining photoassimilates in the shoots may help root-attacked plants to compensate for the loss of belowground tissues. Taken together, our results indicate that induced tolerance may be an important strategy of plants to withstand belowground attack. Furthermore, root herbivore-induced carbon reallocation needs to be taken into account when studying plant-mediated interactions between herbivores.
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