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Student 10-Minute Presentation

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

Student

Student Competition

Undergrad 10-min Competition: P-IE, Behavior, Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Conservation

Plant domestication and geographic origin affect resistance to insect herbivory

Monday, November 11, 2024
11:54 AM – 12:06 PM MST
Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 226 C, PCC
Oral Presentation Student Competition
Plants rely on innate defenses to resist attackers such as insect herbivores. As plants interact with herbivores over evolutionary time, plants become more familiar with attackers and optimize defenses accordingly. However, defense optimization can be disrupted by domestication, which commonly selects for growth traits over defense or when plants are introduced to novel geographic regions. How plant domestication and introduction to novel geographic regions have shaped plant defenses is an outstanding question. To fill this knowledge gap, we investigated resistance across six different plant species in the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae). We included a range of domesticated and wild cucurbit species with shared or different geographic origins from our focal herbivore species, squash bugs (Anasa tristis). Squash bugs are a major pest of cucurbit crops, causing economic loss through direct feeding damage and transmission of a lethal plant pathogen. For 3 days, we measured bug mass gain every 24 hours. Our findings revealed notable differences in resistance between both domesticated and wild cucurbit species, as well as those that did or did not share a geographic origin with squash bugs. Wild cucurbits exhibited higher levels of resistance, while domesticated species were more susceptible to herbivory, suggesting a potential loss or alteration of defenses during domestication. Furthermore, among domesticated species, cucumber plants were highly resistant to squash bugs potentially due to their geographic origin in Asia rather than Mesoamerica, where squash bugs originated. Overall, our findings contribute to improving crop resilience and developing sustainable agricultural practices.