Abstract
Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) impacts plant growth and metabolism. Indirectly, the performance and feeding of insects is affected by plant nutritional quality and resistance traits. Life history and feeding behaviour of Myzus persicae were studied on pepper plants under ambient (aCO2, 400 ppm) or elevated CO2 (eCO2, 650 ppm), as well as the direct impact on plant growth and leaf chemistry. Plant parameters were significantly altered by eCO2 with a negative impact on aphid’s life history. Their pre-reproductive period was 11% longer and fecundity decreased by 37%. Peppers fixed significantly less nitrogen, which explains the poor aphid performance. Plants were taller and had higher biomass and canopy temperature. There was decreased aphid salivation into sieve elements, but no differences in phloem ingestion, indicating that the diminished fitness could be due to poorer tissue quality and unfavourable C:N balance, and that eCO2 was not a factor impeding feeding. Aphid ability to transmit Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) was studied by exposing source and receptor plants to ambient (427 ppm) or elevated (612 ppm) CO2 before or after virus inoculation. A two-fold decrease on transmission was observed when receptor plants were exposed to eCO2 before aphid inoculation when compared to aCO2.
Highlights
Ambient carbon dioxide concentration has exceeded 400 ppm and future estimations predict an increase up to 550 ppm within a few decades[1,2]
We studied Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) transmission by M. persicae on ambient (427 ppm) and elevated CO2 (612 ppm) conditions with source and receptor plants exposed to the two CO2 regimes
Myzus persicae pre-reproductive period (d), which was measured from aphid birth to adulthood was 11% longer on pepper plants from elevated CO2 (eCO2) environment (U = 138.5, Z = − 3.706, p < 0.001) (Fig. 1, Supplementary Table S1)
Summary
Ambient carbon dioxide (aCO2) concentration has exceeded 400 ppm and future estimations predict an increase up to 550 ppm within a few decades[1,2]. Among the observed effects on plants, typical responses to elevated CO2 (eCO2) include increased plant growth and biomass, canopy size, reduction in stomatal conductance and transpiration, improved water-use efficiency and higher photosynthetic rates[4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. Myzus persicae Sulzer, the aphid species studied here, is a cosmopolitan, polyphagous pest of greenhouses and field crops It is a highly efficient vector of more than 100 plant viruses; consecutive insecticide applications to lower vector density have constituted the traditional control strategy in the past, causing environmental and energetic costs[38]. Few studies have considered the feeding behaviour of aphids under rising CO2, but decreased aphid salivation into sieve elements, increased phloem sap ingestion and shorter non-pathway phase are among the effects observed for A. pisum on barrel medic[31,42]
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