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Updated: Jul 12, 2025

Application of Two-spotted Spider Mite Tetranychus urticae for Plant-pest Interaction Studies

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Published on: July 4, 2014

Tomato defences modulate not only insect performance but also their gut microbial composition.

Andreea Bosorogan^1,2, Erick Cardenas-Poire³, Eliana Gonzales-Vigil^4,5

¹Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, M1C 1A4, Canada.

Scientific Reports

|October 24, 2023

Summary

Plant defenses impact insect performance and gut bacteria. Tomato mutants with impaired defenses altered insect gut microbes, reducing diversity and favoring specific bacterial groups, highlighting plant modulation of insect-associated communities.

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Published on: October 8, 2021

Area of Science:

Plant biology
Insect ecology
Microbial ecology

Background:

Plants employ physical and chemical defenses against insect herbivory.
Insect gut bacteria interact with plant defenses and influence host-plant interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how plant defenses affect insect performance and the associated gut bacterial communities.
To disentangle the complex interactions within the plant-insect-microbe system.

Main Methods:

Utilized tomato mutants (odorless-2, jasmonic acid-insensitive1) and wildtype cultivars (Ailsa Craig, Castlemart).
Exposed plants to cabbage looper (Trichoplusia ni) herbivory.
Analyzed insect frass for bacterial community composition and insect performance (larval weight).
Compared leaf and insect-gut bacterial communities.

Main Results:

Plant defenses negatively correlated with insect larval weight.
Distinct frass fatty acid profiles indicated plant genotype influences insect lipid metabolism.
Insect gut bacterial abundance and diversity were reduced on mutant plants.
Enterobacteriaceae predominated in insects on mutant plants, while wildtype-fed insects harbored putatively pathogenic taxa.

Conclusions:

Plant defenses significantly modulate insect-associated bacterial community composition.
Plant genotype influences insect digestive metabolism.
Plant defenses can reduce the abundance of potentially pathogenic bacteria in insect guts.