Sex-specific interactions affect foliar defense compound accumulation and resistance to herbivores in Populus cathayana

He, Yue; Zhu, Zuodong; Guo, Qingxue; Xia, Zhichao

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145819

Cited by 15 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Our research confirmed the rule that female individuals invest primarily in defence and storage [5,6,13]. As a result of this trade-off, males have more resources for growth, which was previously confirmed in natural populations of the common yew, where a higher radial growth rate of males [25] as well as height and diameter was demonstrated [26].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…The higher levels of TPhC in females in both the pot experiment and field study are interesting. Higher levels of defensive substances in female specimens are frequently observed in dioecious plants, confirming that females are better defended than males [5,13,44,[48][49][50]. As in other studies, we did not find a significant effect of environmental conditions (in our case, fertilization) on males or females [51].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…The generally accepted norm is that females invest more in generative structures, storage, and defence substances, and male individuals invest more in growth and nitrogen accumulation [5,12,13]. An outstanding question is whether this pattern appears in juvenile plants or is only present in adults.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Defence Is a Priority in Female Juveniles and Adults of Taxus baccata L.

Nowak

Giertych

Pers‐Kamczyc

et al. 2021

Forests

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Female individuals of dioecious plants invest their resources more in storage and defence, and the males have higher nitrogen content invested in the production of pollen grains. An unresolved problem is whether this strategy occurs only in sexually mature plants or can also occur in juvenile plants. To answer this, Taxus baccata (L.) needles from the mature plants and rooted cuttings (juveniles) in a pot experiment were compared for the content of carbon, nitrogen, starch, total non-structural carbohydrates (TNC), and total phenolic compounds (TPhC). The results indicate that the differences between sexes occurred mainly in sexually mature plants, where the starch content was higher in females and nitrogen in males. However, the novelty of the results is that TPhC was generally higher in females than males in both adults and juveniles, suggesting that defence is a priority for females from an early age. We do not know if this is an innate trait because the strobili production (albeit at a very low level) of juveniles was observed in all individuals after the autumn of the first year. We found no effect of fertilization on sex-specific response in the pot experiment, which may be related to the lower reproductive effort of juveniles.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

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Defence Is a Priority in Female Juveniles and Adults of Taxus baccata L.

Nowak

Giertych

Pers‐Kamczyc

et al. 2021

Forests

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“…When the edge of the leaf was missing, the damaged area was predicted by reconstructing the original shape. Then, the damaged percentage of the leaf area was calculated by the damaged leaf area/total leaf area × 100 (He et al, 2021).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plagiodera versicolora feeding induces systemic and sexually differential defense responses in poplars

Liu

Zeng

Yang

et al. 2022

Physiologia Plantarum

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Dioecious plants have evolved effective defense strategies to deal with various biotic and abiotic stresses. However, little is known regarding sexual differences in their defense against herbivores. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of systemic defense responses in male and female Populus cathayana attacked by Plagiodera versicolora Laicharting. The results revealed that P. cathayana exhibits sexually differential responses to a defoliator. The percentage of damaged leaf area was greater in males than in females. Furthermore, the observed saccharide changes imply that males and females exhibit different response times to defoliators. The contents of flavonoids and anthocyanins were significantly increased in both sexes but were higher in females. Specifically, the jasmonic acid (JA) pathway plays an important role. Expression of pest‐related genes further revealed that hormones induce changes in downstream genes and metabolites, and upregulation of JA ZIM‐domain (JAZ) and CORONATINE INSENSITIVE 1 (COI1) was more significant in females. In the undamaged adjacent leaves, metabolite and gene changes displayed similar patterns to the damaged local leaves, but levels of JA, JAZ1, and COI1 were higher in females. Therefore, our data confirmed that plants initiate the JA pathway to defend against herbivores, that there is systematic signal transduction, and that this ability is stronger in females than in males. This study provides new insights into the resistance of dioecious plants to herbivory and adds a new theoretical basis for the systemic signal transduction of plants in response to biotic stress.

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“…For example, a closer relationship between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and the root system of P. cathayana males has been suggested to enhance the capacity of phosphorus forage compared to females [ 7 ]. A selective enrichment of a specific microbiome that contributes to stress resistance is driven by variation in plant metabolism and immune-related characters [ 16 , 17 ]. However, sex-specific plant microbiomes have not been investigated, whereas differences in defense, growth, and reproduction between male and female plants have been well studied [ 6 , 18 – 20 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant sex affects plant-microbiome assemblies of dioecious Populus cathayana trees under different soil nitrogen conditions

Guo

Liu²,

Liu³

et al. 2022

Microbiome

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Background Dioecious plants have coevolved with diverse plant microbiomes, which are crucial for the fitness and productivity of their host. Sexual dimorphism in morphology, physiology, or gene expression may relate to different microbial compositions that affect male and female fitness in different environments. However, sex-specific impacts on ecological processes that control the microbiome assembly are not well known. In this study, Populus cathayana males and females were planted in different nitrogen conditions. It was hypothesized that males and females differently affect bacterial and fungal communities in the rhizosphere soil, roots, old leaves, and young leaves. Physiological traits and transcriptome profiles of male and female plants were investigated to reveal potential mechanisms that control the microbiome assembly. Results Our results showed strong niche differentiation that shapes microbial communities leading to a rapid loss of diversity along a decreasing pH gradient from the rhizosphere soil to leaves. Sex had different impacts on the microbial assembly in each niche. Especially fungal endophytes showed great differences in the community structure, keystone species, and community complexity between P. cathayana males and females. For example, the fungal co-occurrence network was more complex and the alpha diversity was significantly higher in young female leaves compared to young male leaves. Transcriptome profiles revealed substantial differences in plant-pathogen interactions and physiological traits that clearly demonstrated divergent internal environments for endophytes inhabiting males and females. Starch and pH of young leaves significantly affected the abundance of Proteobacteria, while tannin and pH of roots showed significant effects on the abundance of Chloroflexi, Actinobacteria, and Proteobacteria, and on the bacterial Shannon diversity. Conclusion Our results provided important knowledge for understanding sexual dimorphism that affects microbial assemblies, thus advancing our understanding of plant-microbiome interactions.

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Sex-specific interactions affect foliar defense compound accumulation and resistance to herbivores in Populus cathayana

Cited by 15 publications

References 69 publications

Defence Is a Priority in Female Juveniles and Adults of Taxus baccata L.

Defence Is a Priority in Female Juveniles and Adults of Taxus baccata L.

Plagiodera versicolora feeding induces systemic and sexually differential defense responses in poplars

Plant sex affects plant-microbiome assemblies of dioecious Populus cathayana trees under different soil nitrogen conditions

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