Transforming Chemical Ecology by Enabling Measurement of Volatile Compounds in the Field

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This project will open up the world of smell to exploration by field biologists by installing a Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer (GC-Mass Spec) at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL). As one of the five senses, smell plays a large role in how insects and other animals interact with plants, including whether a plant is pollinated or eaten. Because one-third of the calories that humans eat come from plants that are pollinated by animals, a basic understanding of pollination is important to food security. More broadly, smell, for reasons related to immune systems, affects how animals recognize relatives, choose mates, remember events and attach emotional value to them. Recent breakthroughs allow the use of a GC-Mass Spec to detect very small amounts of chemicals emitted into the air. Currently deployed equipment has primarily been confined to artificial, laboratory settings. This project will provide students and scientists from across the United States an opportunity to study the role of chemicals in mediating the relationships between plants and animals in a natural, field setting. Specific research projects will include exploring how the simultaneous pressures of avoiding being eaten while attracting pollinators affect the evolution of plants, the manner in which chemicals affect where insects eat plants, as well as shed light into the evolutionary pathways by which insects began to use plants as food. RMBL will provide training to scientists and students on how to use the equipment, reaching diverse cultural groups through our education programs, which have a high minority participation rate.This project will install a state-of-the-art Shimadzu Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS) 2010 Ultra, with both thermal desorption and conventional solvent-desorption injection ports, at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. Taking advantage of recent technological improvements, this equipment will allow the identification of volatile chemicals emitted by plants in an ecological context. This project will provide the first such instrument to users at a major research field station in the US and will enhance scientific infrastructure by improving access to instrumentation on a cost effective basis. In addition to supporting research by scores of scientists from around the world, Co-PI's Diane Campbell (UC-Irvine) and Robert Raguso (Cornell) will incorporate floral volatiles (e.g., indole and á-pinene) into studies of how interactions with pollinators and seed predators influence natural selection on floral trait combinations. Emily Mooney (Univ. of CO, Colorado Springs) and Kailen Mooney (UC-Irvine) will build upon past and ongoing studies of the interactions between the herbaceous host plant Ligusticum porteri, the aphid Aphis helianthi, its locally dominant insect herbivore, and the predators and ants that attack and protect the aphid, respectively. As part of his work on the evolutionary genomic architecture underlying herbivory, Noah Whiteman (UC-Berkeley) will identify volatiles from Cardamine cordifolia in order to design experiments to expose Scaptomyza nigrita flies to active compounds in behavior trials. Additionally, RMBL will offer training in chemical analysis, including a one-week course for novices and a course for those who have experience with GC-MS but not the particular model machine. We will integrate the equipment in training of a diverse scientific workforce. More than 38% of participants in our Research Experience for Undergraduate program are minorities. We anticipate that some of these students will learn to analyze chromatograms, extending their skill sets beyond biology and thereby enhancing future career opportunities. More information about the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory can be found at rmbl.org.