We Are What We Eat: A Stoichiometric and Ecometabolomic Study of Caterpillars Feeding on Two Pine Subspecies of Pinus sylvestris
Many studies have addressed several plant-insect interaction topics at nutritional, molecular, physiological, and evolutionary levels. However, it is still unknown how flexible the metabolism and the nutritional content of specialist insect herbivores feeding on different closely related plants can...
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doaj-0001ff9dec844b8b863c79af29a97c3d2020-11-24T21:33:18ZengMDPI AGInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences1422-00672018-12-012015910.3390/ijms20010059ijms20010059We Are What We Eat: A Stoichiometric and Ecometabolomic Study of Caterpillars Feeding on Two Pine Subspecies of Pinus sylvestrisAlbert Rivas-Ubach0Josep Peñuelas1José Antonio Hódar2Michal Oravec3Ljiljana Paša-Tolić4Otmar Urban5Jordi Sardans6Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99354, USACREAF, Center for Ecological and Forestry Applications, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08913 Catalonia, SpainGrupo de Ecología Terrestre, Departamento de Biología Animal y Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, SpainGlobal Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Bĕlidla 4a, CZ-603 00 Brno, Czech RepublicEnvironmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99354, USAGlobal Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Bĕlidla 4a, CZ-603 00 Brno, Czech RepublicCREAF, Center for Ecological and Forestry Applications, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08913 Catalonia, SpainMany studies have addressed several plant-insect interaction topics at nutritional, molecular, physiological, and evolutionary levels. However, it is still unknown how flexible the metabolism and the nutritional content of specialist insect herbivores feeding on different closely related plants can be. We performed elemental, stoichiometric, and metabolomics analyses on leaves of two coexisting Pinus sylvestris subspecies and on their main insect herbivore; the caterpillar of the processionary moth (Thaumetopoea pityocampa). Caterpillars feeding on different pine subspecies had distinct overall metabolome structure, accounting for over 10% of the total variability. Although plants and insects have very divergent metabolomes, caterpillars showed certain resemblance to their plant-host metabolome. In addition, few plant-related secondary metabolites were found accumulated in caterpillar tissues which could potentially be used for self-defense. Caterpillars feeding on N and P richer needles had lower N and P tissue concentration and higher C:N and C:P ratios, suggesting that nutrient transfer is not necessarily linear through trophic levels and other plant-metabolic factors could be interfering. This exploratory study showed that little chemical differences between plant food sources can impact the overall metabolome of specialist insect herbivores. Significant nutritional shifts in herbivore tissues could lead to larger changes of the trophic web structure.http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/20/1/59plant-insectmetabolomicsstoichiometryprocessionary mothscots pinesecondary metabolitesherbivory |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Albert Rivas-Ubach Josep Peñuelas José Antonio Hódar Michal Oravec Ljiljana Paša-Tolić Otmar Urban Jordi Sardans |
spellingShingle |
Albert Rivas-Ubach Josep Peñuelas José Antonio Hódar Michal Oravec Ljiljana Paša-Tolić Otmar Urban Jordi Sardans We Are What We Eat: A Stoichiometric and Ecometabolomic Study of Caterpillars Feeding on Two Pine Subspecies of Pinus sylvestris International Journal of Molecular Sciences plant-insect metabolomics stoichiometry processionary moth scots pine secondary metabolites herbivory |
author_facet |
Albert Rivas-Ubach Josep Peñuelas José Antonio Hódar Michal Oravec Ljiljana Paša-Tolić Otmar Urban Jordi Sardans |
author_sort |
Albert Rivas-Ubach |
title |
We Are What We Eat: A Stoichiometric and Ecometabolomic Study of Caterpillars Feeding on Two Pine Subspecies of Pinus sylvestris |
title_short |
We Are What We Eat: A Stoichiometric and Ecometabolomic Study of Caterpillars Feeding on Two Pine Subspecies of Pinus sylvestris |
title_full |
We Are What We Eat: A Stoichiometric and Ecometabolomic Study of Caterpillars Feeding on Two Pine Subspecies of Pinus sylvestris |
title_fullStr |
We Are What We Eat: A Stoichiometric and Ecometabolomic Study of Caterpillars Feeding on Two Pine Subspecies of Pinus sylvestris |
title_full_unstemmed |
We Are What We Eat: A Stoichiometric and Ecometabolomic Study of Caterpillars Feeding on Two Pine Subspecies of Pinus sylvestris |
title_sort |
we are what we eat: a stoichiometric and ecometabolomic study of caterpillars feeding on two pine subspecies of pinus sylvestris |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
International Journal of Molecular Sciences |
issn |
1422-0067 |
publishDate |
2018-12-01 |
description |
Many studies have addressed several plant-insect interaction topics at nutritional, molecular, physiological, and evolutionary levels. However, it is still unknown how flexible the metabolism and the nutritional content of specialist insect herbivores feeding on different closely related plants can be. We performed elemental, stoichiometric, and metabolomics analyses on leaves of two coexisting Pinus sylvestris subspecies and on their main insect herbivore; the caterpillar of the processionary moth (Thaumetopoea pityocampa). Caterpillars feeding on different pine subspecies had distinct overall metabolome structure, accounting for over 10% of the total variability. Although plants and insects have very divergent metabolomes, caterpillars showed certain resemblance to their plant-host metabolome. In addition, few plant-related secondary metabolites were found accumulated in caterpillar tissues which could potentially be used for self-defense. Caterpillars feeding on N and P richer needles had lower N and P tissue concentration and higher C:N and C:P ratios, suggesting that nutrient transfer is not necessarily linear through trophic levels and other plant-metabolic factors could be interfering. This exploratory study showed that little chemical differences between plant food sources can impact the overall metabolome of specialist insect herbivores. Significant nutritional shifts in herbivore tissues could lead to larger changes of the trophic web structure. |
topic |
plant-insect metabolomics stoichiometry processionary moth scots pine secondary metabolites herbivory |
url |
http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/20/1/59 |
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