Induced plant defenses, host-pathogen interactions, and forest insect outbreaks

Induced plant defenses, host-pathogen interactions, and forest insect outbreaks.

Cyclic outbreaks of defoliating insects devastate forests, but their causes are poorly understood. Outbreak cycles are often assumed to be driven by density-dependent mortality due to natural enemies, because pathogens and predators cause high mortality and because natural-enemy models reproduce fluctuations in defoliation data. The role of induced defenses is in contrast often dismissed, becau...

Supporting Information for “Induced Plant Defenses, Host-Pathogen Interactions, and Forest Insect Outbreaks”

Host-pathogen interactions, insect outbreaks, and natural selection for disease resistance.

The theory of insect population dynamics has shown that heterogeneity in natural-enemy attack rates is strongly stabilizing. We tested the usefulness of this theory for outbreaking insects, many of which are attacked by infectious pathogens. We measured heterogeneity among gypsy moth larvae in their risk of infection with a nucleopolyhedrovirus, which is effectively heterogeneity in the pathoge...

Adaptation in an insect host–plant pathogen interaction

Jenny S. Cory* and Judith H. Myers Molecular Ecology and Biocontrol Group, NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3SR, UK Department of Zoology and Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Centre for Biodiversity Research, University of British Columbia, 6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver, Canada *Correspondence and present address: Jenny S. Cory, Laboratory of Virology, W...

Host–Pathogen Interactions: Proline Gives Insect Pathogens the Green Light

How does a quiescent symbiont of a nematode worm know when to turn nasty? Metabolic analysis and genetic knockouts confirm that model insect pathogens can sense L-proline in insect blood. This not only serves as a wake-up call, activating secondary metabolite virulence factors, but also provides an energy source for a metabolic shift appropriate for adaptation to the host environment.