complex odor from plants under attack herbivores enemies react to the whole, not its parts复杂的气味从植物食草动物受到了攻击的敌人的反应,而不是它的部分.pdfVIP

Complex Odor from Plants under Attack: Herbivore’s Enemies React to the Whole, Not Its Parts Michiel van Wijk*, Paulien J. A. de Bruijn, Maurice W. Sabelis University of Amsterdam, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), Section Population Biology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract Background: Insect herbivory induces plant odors that attract herbivores’ natural enemies. Assuming this attraction emerges from individual compounds, genetic control over odor emission of crops may provide a rationale for manipulating the distribution of predators used for pest control. However, studies on odor perception in vertebrates and invertebrates suggest that olfactory information processing of mixtures results in odor percepts that are a synthetic whole and not a set of components that could function as recognizable individual attractants. Here, we ask if predators respond to herbivore- induced attractants in odor mixtures or to odor mixture as a whole. Methodology/Principal Findings: We studied a system consisting of Lima bean, the herbivorous mite Tetranychus urticae and the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis. We found that four herbivore-induced bean volatiles are not attractive in pure form while a fifth, methyl salicylate (MeSA), is. Several reduced mixtures deficient in one component compared to the full spider-mite induced blend were not attractive despite the presence of MeSA indicating that the predators cannot detect this component in these odor mixtures. A mixture of all five HIPV is most attractive, when offered together with the non- induced odor of Lima bean. Odors that elicit no response in their pure form were essential components of the attractive mixture. Conclusions/Significance: We conclude that the predatory mites perceive odors as a synthetic whole and that the