To defend their vulnerable antecedent against the ravage of cockchafer larvae , weedy dandelions loose a milky blackjack with a bitter taste . researcher analyzing this dandelion latex have discovered that one single compound does most of the protecting , and it cuts down on dandelion damage unmistakably well . The findings are published inPLOS Biologythis week .
Plants produce over 200,000 different bioactive compounds call lowly metabolites that are n’t directly involved in growth . Many of them help protect the leaf and roots from insect herbivores , though how they mould below ground is n’t as well studied . Roots require a spate of protection ( and are especially appetizing for grub ) because that ’s where nutrients are stored ; plant rely on them to fuel their springtime growth .
The usual cockchafer beetle ( Melolontha genus Melolontha , also called May bug ) spends the first three years of its life Hz live on underground and feast on the roots of dissimilar plant , especially that of the dandelion ( genus Taraxacum officinale ) . dandelion give rise rubber-base paint in all their major organs , and the eminent sum exude from hurt taproots .
To explore the defensive functions of dandelion latex against voracious larvae , Matthias Erb of theMax - Planck Institute for Chemical Ecologyand colleagues separated and analyzed the various components of latex from over a XII different type of dandelions using chromatography technique . They found that a single substance negatively touch cockchafer larvae growth : the sesquiterpene lactone taraxinic acid β - 500 - glucopyranosyl ester ( or TA - G ) .
Then , to screen the effect of TA - G deficiency on works and insect fundamental interaction , the squad identified the factor that bait for the first step of its yield and silenced it . This 90 percent reduction of TA - G levels result in a major increase in larvae feeding . The genetically engineer TA - G - deficient lineages of dandelions suffer three times more root biomass reduction than normal dandelions . Meanwhile , the larva did n’t fertilize nearly as much when the squad added purified TA - G to an artificial dieting in the lab .
And at last , when the team performed a garden experimentation with over 2,000 individual dandelion belonging to 17 different type , they obtain that TA - G tighten the negative impingement of cockchafer larvae in the field . Taken together , the findings march that TA - G benefits works fitness in the bearing of root eater .
