Figure 1
From: Root-associated entomopathogenic fungi manipulate host plants to attract herbivorous insects
Overview of the research study. The upper panel shows a hypothetical framework describing the effects of the root-associated entomopathogenic fungus (R-AEF) Metarhizium brunneum on the behavior of cabbage root flies, Delia radicum. R-AEF manipulates the morpho-physiophenological host plant traits by: (a) altering leaf reflectance and phytohormonal composition of host plant and (b) consequently causing host plants with R-AEF to be more attractive to cabbage root flies than (c) host plants without R-AEF. We hypothesized that R-AEF M. brunneum manipulates host plants to attract cabbage root flies and increase their dispersal rates. Lower panel shows the sequence of experiments performed to verify the hypothesis. We evaluated the effects of the R-AEF on: (d) host plant physiological traits (reflectance and phytohormone measurements) (e) landing preference (wind tunnel experiments) and (f) propensity of oviposition (field and greenhouse experiments).
