Journal article
Host quality induces phenotypic plasticity in a wing polyphenic insect
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, Vol.115(29), pp.7563-7568
07/17/2018
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/103840
PMCID: PMC6055199
PMID: 29967173
Abstract
Variation in food nutrient content and density are key ecological factors linked to the expression of condition-dependent, adaptive phenotypes such as wing polyphenisms. There is very little known about exactly what the ecological cue is that induces the appropriate insect phenotype in wing polyphenic insects. Our study reveals that glucose concentration of the host plant and insect density directly influence the development of brown planthoppers into either the long-winged migratory morph or the short-winged reproductive morph. This study is a step in linking host quality signals and other factors such as density to the induction of adaptive phenotypes in insects.
Food quality is a critical environmental condition that impacts an animal’s growth and development. Many insects facing this challenge have evolved a phenotypically plastic, adaptive response. For example, many species of insect exhibit facultative wing growth, which reflects a physiological and evolutionary trade-off between dispersal and reproduction, triggered by environmental conditions. What the environmental cues are and how they are transduced to produce these alternative forms, and their associated ecological shift from dispersal to reproduction, remains an important unsolved problem in evolutionary ecology. In this study, we investigated the role that host quality has on the induction of wing development in a wing polyphenic insect exhibiting strong tradeoffs in investment between dispersal and reproduction, the brown planthopper, a serious rice pest in Asia. As rice plants grow, the short-winged brown planthopper dominates the population, but a shift occurs as the plants mature and senesce in the field such that long-winged brown planthoppers emerge and migrate. It remains unknown how changes in the rice plant induce development of the long-winged morph, despite recent discoveries on the role of the insulin and JNK signaling pathways in wing development. We found that by mimicking the glucose concentration of senescing rice plants, we significantly increased the proportion of long-winged female planthoppers. The effects of glucose on wing morph are additive with previously described effects of density. Our results show that host quality both directly regulates phenotypic plasticity and interacts with other factors such as density to produce the appropriate phenotype for specific environmental conditions.
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Details
- Title
- Host quality induces phenotypic plasticity in a wing polyphenic insect
- Creators
- Xinda Lin - College of Life SciencesYili Xu - College of Life SciencesJianru Jiang - College of Life SciencesMark Lavine - Department of EntomologyLaura Corley Lavine - Department of Entomology
- Publication Details
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, Vol.115(29), pp.7563-7568
- Academic Unit
- Entomology, Department of
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Grant note
- 1001738 / USDA | National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) 31672023 / National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) 31741107 / National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) 31471771 / National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) IOS-0919730 / National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Identifiers
- 99900546852301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article