| Abstract Detail
Recent Topics Posters Durden, Lekeah [1], Quach, Quynh [2], Clay, Keith [2]. Morning Glory Endosymbiosis mediates associational resistance for co-occurring crop species. To understand the ecological impact on community dynamics caused by hereditary endosymbiont we employed the morning glory Ipomoea tricolor (Convolvulaceae) which maintains a fungal endosymbiont passed on from maternal parent to offspring. Using the Associational Resistance framework, the goal of this study is to test whether the I. tricolor fungal endosymbiont affects co-occurring crop species by altering the resistance, or susceptibility, to a shared natural enemy. In a set of experimental greenhouse studies, we grew I. tricolor with one of two crop species, either the congeneric sweetpotato (I. batatas) or the more distantly related corn (Zea mays) in the presence of the Southern Root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita. Using a 2x2 full factorial design, nematode treatment pots contained either nematode infested (N+) or pots lacking nematode (N-) soils. Within these pots we also planted a symbiont treatment of either a single endosymbiont (E+) or endosymbiont-free (E-) I. tricolor seedling. All pots were grown for nine weeks and then harvested and separated into the above- and below-ground biomass by species. For the corn experiment there was a significant nematode treatment effect and nematode*symbiont interaction on corn aboveground biomass, but no effect on morning glory biomass. There was also a significant nematode effect and nematode*symbiont interaction on total pot biomass (corn plus morning glory). Both N+ and E+ reduced biomass, consistent with another study using only I. tricolor and M. incognita, but corn produced more biomass in the N+ treatment paired with E+ morning glory. In the sweetpotato experiment, morning glory gall numbers were quantified as a covariate, indicating a significant covariate effect on morning glory biomass but no effect of nematode treatment, symbiont treatment or the interaction on sweetpotato or morning glory biomass. There was a significant symbiont effect on total pot productivity but adding the covariate resulted in a significant gall number and nematode effect, but the symbiont effect became non-significant. These results suggest that the Periglandula endosymbiont of I. tricolor can alter host interactions with co-occurring plant species and mediate enemy interactions. Results from this greenhouse experiment found that the E+ I. tricolor had significantly fewer gall numbers on the roots compared to E- plants when in the presence of the natural enemy. These results demonstrated that associational effects are occurring in these systems, corn and sweetpotato respond differently to the presence of the endosymbiont.
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1 - Indiana University, Dept. Of Biology, 1001 E. 3rd St., Jordan Hall- 159 Clay Lab, Bloomington, IN, 47405, United States
2 - Tulane University, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 432 Lindy Boggs Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, 70118, USA
Keywords:
associational resistance
plant-microbe interactions
symbiont
Endophytes
associational effects.
Presentation Type: Recent Topics Poster
Session: P1, Recent Topics Posters
Location: Virtual/Virtual
Date: Thursday, July 22nd, 2021
Time: 5:00 PM(EDT)
Number: P1RT034
Abstract ID:1425
Candidate for Awards:None |
