Abstract
The behavior of the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), is known to be affected by plant volatile cues, but its attraction or repellent to specific volatile cues has not been deeply studied yet. Therefore, the aim of our study was to identify the most attractive plant among cultivars of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and eggplant (Solanum melongena) to evaluate the volatiles of plants to identify the chemical compound(s) that attract T. vaporariorum. We speculated that whitefly–host plant interaction primarily depends on plant volatile emissions and that once the plant is damaged, it might attract more whiteflies. Three intact (uninfested) tomato, four intact eggplant cultivars and whitefly infested plants of the most whitefly attractive tomato and eggplant cultivars were examined by behavioral assay experiments for attractiveness to T. vaporariorum and headspace volatile were determined by solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Whiteflies had the highest preference for the intact eggplant Kuai Yuan Qie (KYQ) among the eggplant and the tomato plant cultivars in bioassay experiments. Although both male and female whiteflies were significantly more attracted to infested KYQ plants than to intact plants, whitefly females did not select conspecific-infested YG plants. The volatile emissions among different plant cultivars in individual species and infested versus intact plants were significantly different. Among these volatiles, identified major green leaf volatiles [(Z)-3-hexen-1-ol] and terpenoids [α-pinene, (E)-β-caryophyllene, α-humulene, azulene] showed a constitutive relationship with the most whitefly preference plants. Our findings provide new insights into the chemical compounds that attract or repel whiteflies.
Highlights
In agro-ecosystems, plants and herbivores interact with plant metabolites either directly or indirectly
Trialeurodes vaporariorum is highly attracted to some commercially available tomato cultivars as compared with wild tomato species (Solanum habrochaites and Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium L.) (Lucatti et al, 2010; McDaniel et al, 2016). This variable attraction may depend on the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) properties of the eggplant and tomato cultivars, as the chemical compounds manipulating the behavioral responses of T. vaporariorum are less known except their attraction studied for the sexual pheromone (Yin and Maschwitz, 1983) and tomato leaf volatiles (Tsueda et al, 2014)
When whiteflies had a choice between Yang Guang 906’ (YG) and Song Tian Hongmandi’ (STH), 64% of the whiteflies selected YG (χ2 = 7.84, P = 0.005)
Summary
In agro-ecosystems, plants and herbivores interact with plant metabolites either directly or indirectly. Trialeurodes vaporariorum is highly attracted to some commercially available tomato cultivars as compared with wild tomato species (Solanum habrochaites and Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium L.) (Lucatti et al, 2010; McDaniel et al, 2016). This variable attraction may depend on the VOC properties of the eggplant and tomato cultivars, as the chemical compounds manipulating the behavioral responses of T. vaporariorum are less known except their attraction studied for the sexual pheromone (Yin and Maschwitz, 1983) and tomato leaf volatiles (Tsueda et al, 2014)
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