Are Plant Defenses Chemicals Commonly Sequestered and Metabolized by their Herbivores to Function as Infochemicals in Higher Trophic Level Interactions in Nature?
(C02)
Subject Area
Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
Plant Biochemistry and Biophysics
Organismic Interactions, Chemical Ecology and Microbiomes of Plant Systems
Term
from 2014 to 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 239748522
Plants integrate responses between two spatially separated habitats: air and soil, with different communities of heterotrophs depending on the same host. Little is known about the chemical mediators of interactions between aboveground herbivores and root colonizers. Using metabo-lomics and transcriptomics, we will characterize spatiotemporal changes in roots of herbivore-damaged plants and identify underlying signalling pathways. We will genetically modify identified traits to determine their ecological function in interactions with soil bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi and the consequences for herbivore resistance and plant fitness in field experiments.
DFG Programme
Collaborative Research Centres
