MOLECULAR MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN CHEMICAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PLANTS

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When infested by herbivores, plants emit specific blend of volatiles that attract carnivorous natural enemies of herbivores. Such volatiles can be SOS signal of infested plants. Thus, the emission of herbivore-induced volatiles can be considered to be "induced-indirect defense of plants against herbivores". In this study, we extended the idea of induced-indirect defense, and proposed new idea of ""indirect-interaction webs" in which qualitative and/or quantitative changes in plant traits enhance the diversity of interaction networks in tritrophic systems consisting of plants, herbivorous and carnivorous arthropods. This idea shows new approaches clarifying the role of plant-plant interactions in ecosystems. We also investigated the mechanisms involved in the plant-plant interactions mediated by herbivore-induced plant volatiles. We established a new methods using equorin protein to analyze the molecular mechanisms involved in plant-plant interactions. We found that that lima bean leaves emitted volatiles through the adsorption process after the exposure to herbivore-induced plant volatiles. In addition, we also found that herbivore-induced plant volatiles-exposed leaves emitted larger amounts of herbivore-induced plant volatiles in response to the infestation by T. urticae than leaves exposed to unifested leaf volatiles. We therefore conclude that both adsorption and production of volatiles can mediate the attraction of carnivorous mites to plants that have been exposed to volatiles from infested neighbors. Further, as new viewpoints, we found that (1)extra-floral nectar was induced in plants in response to the exposure of herbivore-induced plant volatiles, and (2)the exposure of herbivore-induced plant volatiles resulted in the root and tricome formation. We also made mathematical models to test the hypothesis that plant-plant interaction is the adaptive to the volatile receiving plants.