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Behavioral and chemosensory responses to a host recognition cue by larvae of Pieris rapae

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Abstract

Larvae of the cabbage white Pieris rapae are specialists on plants belonging to the family Brassicaceae (Cruciferae). Adult females have been shown to use the glucosinolate gluconasturtiin (phenylethylglucosinolate) as a recognition cue for cruciferous plants, so they can identify an appropriate host for oviposition (Huang and Renwick in J Chem Ecol 20:1025–1037, 1994). Here, we report our results from a study of the role of this glucosinolate in feeding preferences of P. rapae larvae. The larvae were allowed to choose between leaf disks from the non-host cowpea Vigna sinensis (Fabaceae) that were treated with pure gluconasturtiin in solvent, or solvent alone. Our results showed that gluconasturtiin is a feeding stimulant for P. rapae larvae. A series of chemosensory ablations revealed that this response is mediated by one set of taste sensilla, the sensilla styloconica. Electrophysiological tip recordings revealed two neurons in the lateral sensillum styloconicum that are sensitive to gluconasturtiin. These neurons show significantly higher firing frequencies with 4 mM gluconasturtiin added to the recording pipette than for recording solution alone. We propose that the sensitivity to gluconasturtiin shown by these two taste neurons is an important contributor to the animals’ behavioral preference for this compound.

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Abbreviations

ANOVA :

Analysis of variance

KCl :

Potassium chloride

L1 :

lateral-1

L2 :

lateral-2

L3 :

lateral-3

L4 :

lateral-4

LSD :

Least significant difference

M1 :

medial-1

M2 :

medial-2

M3 :

medial-3

M4 :

medial-4

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NSF #IBN-0081051 to J.A.A.R. and C.I.M. and partly supported by NSF #DBI-0208238 to M.L.Oliva (a.k.a. del Campo). We are grateful to Dr. John Pickett for providing a sample of synthetic gluconasturtiin for these studies. We thank Nadia Ansari, Marina Gusel, Jeanette Ryan and Beth Silverstein for their assistance with the behavioral bioassays. Experiments comply with regulations for animal experimentation in the USA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, P.O.Box 6000, Binghamton, NY, 13902-6000, USA

    Carol I. Miles & Marta L. del Campo

  2. Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    J. Alan A. Renwick

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  1. Carol I. Miles
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  2. Marta L. del Campo
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  3. J. Alan A. Renwick
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Correspondence to Carol I. Miles.

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Miles, C.I., Campo, M.L.d. & Renwick, J.A.A. Behavioral and chemosensory responses to a host recognition cue by larvae of Pieris rapae. J Comp Physiol A 191, 147–155 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-004-0580-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-004-0580-x

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