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Tomato Defenses Under Stress: The Impact of Salinity on Direct Defenses Against Insect Herbivores
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  • Sahil V. Pawar,
  • Sujay M. Paranjape,
  • Grace K. Kalowsky,
  • Michelle Peiffer,
  • Nate McCartney,
  • Jared Ali,
  • Gary Felton
Sahil V. Pawar
The Pennsylvania State University Department of Entomology

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Sujay M. Paranjape
The Pennsylvania State University Department of Entomology
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Grace K. Kalowsky
The Pennsylvania State University Department of Entomology
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Michelle Peiffer
The Pennsylvania State University Department of Entomology
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Nate McCartney
The Pennsylvania State University Department of Entomology
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Jared Ali
The Pennsylvania State University Department of Entomology
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Gary Felton
The Pennsylvania State University Department of Entomology
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Abstract

Plant responses to multifactorial stress combinations are seldom studied, but combinations of abiotic and biotic stresses may cause drastic yield reductions in crops. While an abiotic stress, the salinization of agricultural soil, affects crop production, added pressures of insect herbivores could lead to further losses. In this paper, we investigate the effects of salinity on an insect herbivore, the corn earworm caterpillar ( Helicoverpa zea), feeding on tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum cv. Better Boy) plants. We show that salt-stressed tomato plants are poor hosts for H. zea, impacting caterpillar growth rates, caterpillar feeding preference, and moth oviposition. We further show that these observations are best explained by reductions in both relative leaf water content and leaf total protein content, along with ionic toxicity and imbalance. We observe that salt stress does not influence anti-insect herbivory defense protein (PPO and TPI) levels. Finally, we observe that salt treatment leads to differences in specific volatiles, with lower emissions of 2-carene, α-phellandrene, β-phellandrene, α-humulene, and β-caryophyllene in salt-treated plants. We demonstrate that salt exposure changes tomato plant quality and chemical composition, which in turn negatively affects insect herbivores feeding on these plants.
01 Feb 2024Submitted to Plant, Cell & Environment
01 Feb 2024Submission Checks Completed
01 Feb 2024Assigned to Editor
03 Feb 2024Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
03 Feb 2024Reviewer(s) Assigned
29 May 2024Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
25 Sep 20242nd Revision Received
01 Oct 2024Submission Checks Completed
01 Oct 2024Assigned to Editor
04 Oct 2024Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
04 Oct 2024Reviewer(s) Assigned