Amazing stuff!
"... The plant sends out a chemical distress signal that summons predatory wasps to its aid. ..."
"... When caterpillars chomp the leaves of bean plants, these plants release gases that lure predatory wasps. The wasps prey on the caterpillars, saving the plants from further destruction. ...
This result helps explain a previous study by this team that first identified the biochemical pathway behind this defense mechanism. These results also showcase how the tiny actions of a single protein can affect the behavior of wasps and caterpillars, and in turn, protect the health of the plant. ..."
From the abstract:
"Plants deploy direct and indirect defenses in response to insect herbivory. The specific antiherbivore responses involve cell surface immune receptors that recognize herbivore-associated molecular patterns (HAMPs), yet the ecological relevance of this molecular interplay in natural settings remains unexplored.
Here, we demonstrate with laboratory and field experimentation in Mexico that the inceptin receptor (INR) in the leaves of common bean orchestrates a tritrophic interaction upon recognition of inceptin, a HAMP in caterpillar oral secretions. Near-isogenic lines with a naturally occurring null mutation in INR revealed that inceptin recognition does not only amplify the wound response but activates an herbivore-specific immune pathway to trigger the emission of a distinctive volatile blend that recruits predatory wasps to effectively remove caterpillars from the plants.
These findings provide a definitive molecular-to-ecological link, revealing how a single immune receptor mediates ecologically relevant plant-insect-predator interactions in nature."
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