DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Natural Selection by Herbivores on Solidago altissima Defense Strategies

植物以许多不同的方式保护自己免受食草动物的侵害，包括一些总是表达的防御，还有一些只在食草动物攻击时表达。为了使植物最好地利用它的资源，只有当食草动物攻击时才会表达防御，而无效的防御不应该在那个时候表达。本项目研究了不同食草动物诱导的黄花植物抗消化蛋白的特异性激发及其生物学功能。该项目将通过用两种天然食草动物（通用型和专门型）和机械损伤处理植物，研究在应对食草动物攻击时表达的特异性防御表达。此外，本研究将通过比较长期排除草食动物的试验地和暴露于自然草食动物攻击的对照试验地的植物，来解决草食动物对特定植物防御反应进化的影响。假设，长期去除食草动物将选择对食草动物的防御反应更普遍或规模更小的植物。了解植物对草食反应的复杂性不仅是探索植物防御作为可持续农业害虫控制策略的必要条件，而且还将为理解诱导防御的适应价值铺平道路。这个项目将着眼于自然变异，并将研究食草动物的自然选择对植物抗食草动物性状的影响。它将允许培养分子和化学生态学领域的本科生，该领域已被确定为康奈尔大学生态学研究的重点领域之一。该研究的结果和植物将作为本科课程的资源。

Plants defend themselves against herbivores in many different ways, including some defenses that are always expressed, and others that are only expressed when an herbivore is attacking. In order for a plant to best use its resources, defenses expressed only when an herbivore attacks should be effective against that herbivore, and ineffective defenses should not be expressed at that time. This project addresses the specific elicitation and biological function of antidigestive proteins induced by different herbivores in goldenrod plants. The project will study the expression of specific defenses expressed in response to herbivore attack by treating plants with two types of natural herbivores (a generalist and a specialist) and mechanical damage. Furthermore, the study will address the impact of herbivory on the evolution of specific plant defense responses by comparing plants from plots of a long-term herbivore-exclusion treatment and control plots exposed to natural herbivore attack. Hypothetically, long-term herbivore removal will select for plants with defense responses to herbivory that are more generalized or smaller in magnitude.Understanding the complexity of plant responses to herbivory is not only necessary to explore plant defenses as a strategy in sustainable pest control in agriculture but will also pave the way for understanding the adaptive value of induced defenses. This project will look at natural variation, and will study the effects of natural selection by herbivores on plant traits of herbivore resistance. It will allow training of undergraduate students in the field of Molecular and Chemical Ecology that has been identified as one of the focus fields of ecological research at Cornell. Results and plants from the study will be used as a resource for undergraduate classes.