Authors: HIMANEN, SARI J.¹; NISSINEN, ANNE; DONG, WEN-XIA²; NERG, ANNE-MARJA¹; STEWART, C. NEAL³; POPPY, GUY M.⁴; HOLOPAINEN, JARMO K.¹

Source: Global Change Biology, Volume 14, Number 6, June 2008 , pp. 1437-1454(18)

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Abstract:

Climate change factors such as elevated carbon dioxide (CO₂) and temperature typically affect carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics of crop plants and the performance of insect herbivores. Insect-resistant transgenic plants invest some nutrients to the production of specific toxic proteins [i.e. endotoxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)], which could alter the C-N balance of these plants, especially under changed abiotic conditions. Aphids are nonsusceptible to Lepidoptera-targeted Bt Cry1Ac toxin and they typically show response to abiotic conditions, and here we sought to discover whether they might perform differently on compositionally changed Bt oilseed rape. Bt oilseed rape had increased N content in the leaves coupled with reduced total C compared with its nontransgenic counterpart, but in general the C : N responses of both plant types to elevated CO₂ and temperature were similar. Elevated CO₂ decreased N content and increased C : N ratio of both plant types. Elevated temperature increased C and N contents, total chlorophyll and carotenoid concentrations under ambient CO₂, but decreased these under elevated CO₂. In addition, soluble sugars were increased and starch decreased by elevated temperature under ambient but not under elevated CO₂, whereas photosynthesis was decreased in plants grown under elevated temperature in both CO₂ levels. Myzus persicae, a generalist aphid species, responded directly to elevated temperature with reduced developmental time and decreased adult and progeny weights, whereas the development of the Brassica specialist Brevicoryne brassicae was less affected. Feeding by M. persicae resulted in an increase in the N content of oilseed rape leaves under ambient CO₂, indicating the potential of herbivore feeding itself to cause allocation changes. The aphids performed equally well on both plant types despite the differences between C-N ratios of Bt and non-Bt oilseed rape, revealing the absence of plant composition-related effects on these pests under elevated CO₂, elevated temperature or combined elevated CO₂ and temperature conditions.

Keywords: aphids; Bacillus thuringiensis; Brassica napus; Brevicoryne brassicae; climate change; elevated CO2; elevated temperature; Myzus persicae; transgenic plants

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01574.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of Environmental Science, University of Kuopio, PO Box 1627, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland, 2: Tea Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No. 1 Yungi Road, Hangzhon 31008, China, 3: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee, 2431 Joe Johnson Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA, 4: School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Bassett Crescent East, Southampton SO16 7PX, UK

Publication date: 2008-06-01

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