Herbivore-Induced Plant Volatiles

Herbivore-Induced Plant Volatiles (HIPVs) are semiochemicals (natural signal chemicals mediating changes in behavior and development) plants produce after insect damage occurs which act to repel pests and attract their natural enemies.


 * "In essence, plants attacked by herbivores emit specific chemical signals. These are the ‘words’ of a complex language used to ‘warn’ other plants of impending attack and to recruit predatory/parasitic arthropods for ‘bodyguard’ services. Such plant ‘bodyguards’ respond to the language of plants in distress and benefit from the food/host resources available."

In some varieties of plants, HIPVs are triggered before an insect attack actually occurs, when the adult insect merely lays an egg on the plant. This recruits predators to come even before the plant is damaged. Scientists found that some maize open pollinated varieties (OPVs) of Latin American and African origin produced HIPVs in response to an insect laying an egg on thep lant, whereas standard commercial varieties did not. "It is possible that the high selection pressure for other traits, e.g., yield, might have caused the loss of such valuable traits in commercial varieties."

Discovery of HIPVs
This phenomenon was first demonstrated by Maurice Sabelis and Marcel Dicke in the Netherlands in a series of experiments on a bean plant-spider mite-predatory mite system.

Examples of HIPVs

 * When caterpillars feed on corn plants, the corn plants produce HIPVs to attract parasitic wasps.
 * When aphids lay eggs and feed on broad beans, the beans produce HIPVs to attract parasitic wasps.

A study of six different varieties of maize infested with armyworms found the variety that emitted the most volatile chemicals emitted almost fifteen times more than the lowest emitting variety. The study concluded that "Herbivore-induced plant volatiles and/or correlates thereof contribute to reducing insect damage of maize plants through direct plant defence and enhanced attraction of parasitoids, alleged indirect defence."

Researchers
The following researchers study HIPVs:
 * Marcel Dicke, Wageningen University, Netherlands
 * Maurice W. Sabelis, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Netherlands
 * Louise E.M. Vet, Netherlands Institute of Ecology and Wageningen University, Netherlands
 * Ted Turlings, Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland
 * Zeyaur Khan, International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology
 * John A. Pickett, Rothamsted Research
 * David G. James, Washington State University

Use in Maize in Kenya
In Kenya, where maize is the staple crop, scientists found that maize produces the compounds ocimene and the nonatriene when herbivorous insects damage the plants. are semiochemicals produced during damage to maize plants by herbivorous insects The chemical nonatriene attracted parasitic wasps which prey on the pest species (the stem borer). Therefore, by intercropping maize with species like Molasses grass (Melinis minutiflora), which naturally produces ocimene and the nonatriene regardless of the presence of stem borers, farmers could both repel egg laying stem borer moths and attract parasitic wasps that prey on the stem borer even before any pest damage occurred.

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Intercropping
 * Agroecology
 * Organic Agriculture
 * Food Sovereignty

External Resources

 * Sabelis, M.W., Janssen, A., Pallini, A., Venzon, M., Bruin, J., Drukker, B., Scutareanu, P., 1999. Behavioral responses of predatory and herbivorous arthropods to induced plant volatiles: from evolutionary ecology to agricultural applications. In: Agrawal, A.A., Tuzun, S., Bent, E. (Eds.), Induced Plant Defenses Against Pathogens and Herbivores. APS Press, St. Paul, Minnesota, pp. 269–296.

External Articles

 * Ali Zakir, Medhat M. Sadek, Marie Bengtsson, Bill S. Hansson, Peter Witzgall, and Peter Anderson, "Herbivore-induced plant volatiles provide associational resistance against an ovipositing herbivore," Journal of Ecology, December 14, 2012, DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.12041.
 * H. Marjolein Kruidhof, Marjolein de Rijk, Daniela Hoffmann, Jeffrey A. Harvey, Louise E. M. Vet, Roxina Soler, "Effect of belowground herbivory on parasitoid associative learning of plant odours," Oikos, December 13, 2012, DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0706.2012.00142.x.
 * Foteini G. Pashalidou, Dani Lucas-Barbosa, Joop van Loon, Marcel Dicke, and Nina Fatouros, "Phenotypic plasticity of plant response to herbivore eggs: effects on resistance to caterpillars and plant development," Ecology, (doi: 10.1890/12-1561.1)
 * Degen T, Bakalovic N, Bergvinson D, Turlings TCJ (2012) Differential Performance and Parasitism of Caterpillars on Maize Inbred Lines with Distinctly Different Herbivore-Induced Volatile Emissions. PLoS ONE 7(10): e47589. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0047589
 * Fatouros NE, Lucas-Barbosa D, Weldegergis BT, Pashalidou FG, van Loon JJA, et al. (2012) Plant Volatiles Induced by Herbivore Egg Deposition Affect Insects of Different Trophic Levels. PLoS ONE 7(8): e43607. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0043607
 * "Rieta Gols, Chris Veenemans, Roel P.J. Potting, Hans M. Smid, Marcel Dicke, Jeffrey A. Harvey, Tibor Bukovinszky," "Variation in the specificity of plant volatiles and their use by a specialist and a generalist parasitoid," Animal Behaviour, Volume 83, Issue 5, May 2012, Pages 1231-1242.
 * Andrea Clavijo McCormick, Sybille B. Unsicker, Jonathan Gershenzon, The specificity of herbivore-induced plant volatiles in attracting herbivore enemies, Trends in Plant Science, Available online 12 April 2012.
 * Amanuel Tamiru, Toby J. A. Bruce, Charles A. O. Midega, Christine M. Woodcock, Michael A. Birkett, John A. Pickett, and Zeyaur R. Khan, Oviposition Induced Volatile Emissions from African Smallholder Farmers’ Maize Varieties, Journal of Chemical Ecology, Volume 38, Number 3, March 2012, p. 231–234.
 * J. Peng, J. J. A. van Loon, S. Zheng, & M. Dicke, Herbivore-induced volatiles of cabbage (Brassica oleracea) prime defence responses in neighbouring intact plants, Plant Biology, 2011.
 * Iris F. Kappers, Hans Hoogerbrugge, Harro J. Bouwmeester, & Marcel Dicke, "Variation in Herbivory-induced Volatiles Among Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Varieties has Consequences for the Attraction of Carnivorous Natural Enemies," J Chem Ecol (2011) 37:150–160, DOI 10.1007/s10886-011-9906-7.
 * Roland Mumm and Marcel Dicke, "Variation in natural plant products and the attraction of bodyguards involved in indirect plant defense," Can. J. Zool. 88: 628-667 (2010). doi:10.1139/Z10-032.
 * Zeyaur R. Khan, Charles A. O. Midega, Toby J. A. Bruce, Antony M. Hooper, John A. Pickett, "Exploiting phytochemicals for developing a ‘push–pull’ crop protection strategy for cereal farmers in Africa," Journal of Experimental Botany, 61 (15): 4185-4196, 2010.
 * Zeyaur R. Khan, David G. James, Charles A.O. Midega, John A. Pickett, "Chemical ecology and conservation biological control," Biological Control 45 (2008) 210–224.
 * Pickett, J.A., Bruce, T.J.A., Chamberlain, K., Hassanali, A., Khan, Z.R., Matthes, M.C., Napier, J.A., Smart, L.E., Wadhams, L.J., Woodcock, C.M., 2006. Plant volatiles yielding new ways to exploit plant defence. In: Dicke, M., Takken, W. (Eds.), Chemical Ecology: From Gene to Ecosystem. Springer, Netherlands, pp. 161–173.
 * Khan, Z.R., Pickett, J.A., Van den Berg, J., Wadhams, L.J., Woodcock, C.M., 2000. Exploiting chemical ecology and species diversity: stemborer and Striga control for maize and sorghum in Africa. Pest Management Science 56, 957–962.
 * Turlings, T.C.J., Loughrin, J.H., McCall, P.J., Rose, U.S.R., Lewis, W.J., Tumlinson, J.H., 1995. How caterpillar-damaged plants protect themselves by attracting parasitic wasps. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences United States of America 92, 4169–4174.
 * Turlings, T.C.J., Tumlinson, J.H., Lewis, W.J., 1990. Exploitation of herbivore-induced plant odors by host-seeking parasitic wasps. Science 250, 1251–1253.