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Protected by Fumigants: Beetle Perfumes in Antimicrobial Defense

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Abstract

Beetles share with other eukaryotes an innate immune system that mediates endogenous defense against pathogens. In addition, larvae of some taxa produce fluid exocrine secretions that contain antimicrobial compounds. In this paper, we provide evidence that larvae of the brassy willow leaf beetle Phratora vitellinae constitutively release volatile glandular secretions that combat pathogens in their microenvironment. We identified salicylaldehyde as the major component of their enveloping perfume cloud, which is emitted by furrow-shaped openings of larval glandular reservoirs and which inhibits in vitro the growth of the bacterial entomopathogen Bacillus thuringiensis. The suggested role of salicylaldehyde as a fumigant in exogenous antimicrobial defense was confirmed in vivo by its removal from glandular reservoirs. This resulted in an enhanced susceptibility of the larvae to infection with the fungal entomopathogens Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae. Consequently, we established the hypothesis that antimicrobial defense in beetles can be expanded beyond innate immunity to include external disinfection of their microenvironment, and we report for the first time the contribution of fumigants to antimicrobial defense in animals.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Gisbert Zimmermann (BBA Darmstadt, Germany) for providing the different strains of entomopathogenic bacteria and fungi and Monika Hilker (Berlin, Germany) for providing the GC-MS for analysis of headspace samples. The authors are indebted to Rod Snowdon (Giessen, Germany) for editing the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Phytopathology and Applied Zoology, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Jürgen Gross, Henrike Schmidtberg & Andreas Vilcinskas

  2. Institute for Integrated Plant Protection, Federal Biological Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Stahnsdorfer Damm 81, 14532, Kleinmachnow, Germany

    Kerstin Schumacher

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  1. Jürgen Gross
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  2. Kerstin Schumacher
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  3. Henrike Schmidtberg
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  4. Andreas Vilcinskas
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Correspondence to Jürgen Gross.

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Gross, J., Schumacher, K., Schmidtberg, H. et al. Protected by Fumigants: Beetle Perfumes in Antimicrobial Defense. J Chem Ecol 34, 179–188 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-007-9416-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-007-9416-9

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