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
• Subproject of: SFB 1127: Chemical Mediators in Complex Biosystems (ChemBioSys)
• Applicant Institution: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Ian Thomas Baldwin; Professorin Dr. Meredith C. Schuman, until 11/2019