The frequency and chemical phenotype of neighboring plants determine the effects of intraspecific plant diversity

Abstract

Associational effects, whereby plants influence the biotic interactions of their neighbors, are an important component of plant–insect interactions. Plant chemistry has been hypothesized to mediate these interactions. The role of chemistry in associational effects, however, has been unclear in part because the diversity of plant chemistry makes it difficult to tease apart the importance and roles of particular classes of compounds. We examined the chemical ecology of associational effects using backcross‐bred plants of the Solanum pennellii introgression lines. We used eight genotypes from the introgression line system to establish 14 unique neighborhood treatments that maximized differences in acyl sugars, proteinase inhibitor, and terpene chemical diversity. We found that the chemical traits of the neighboring plant, rather than simply the number of introgression lines within a neighborhood, influenced insect abundance on focal plants. Furthermore, within‐chemical class diversity had contrasting effects on herbivore and predator abundances, and depended on the frequency of neighboring plant chemotypes. Notably, we found insect mobility—flying versus crawling—played a key role in insect response to phytochemistry. We highlight that the frequency and chemical phenotype of plant neighbors underlie associational effects and suggest this may be an important mechanism in maintaining intraspecific phytochemical variation within plant populations.

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