Behavioral and electrophysiological responses of the emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis, to induced volatiles of Manchurian ash, Fraxinus mandshurica

Emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), is a devastating buprestid beetle introduced to North America from Asia. Asian ash trees exhibit resistance to EAB, likely due to a shared co-evolutionary history. Resistance to one pest, however, does not necessarily confer resistance to others. Should Asian ash be highly susceptible to North American herbivores, the utility of such species for hybridization, breeding programs, and establishment in managed landscapes could be compromised. Common urban problems, such as drought stress, can increase borer attack and survival and may further complicate the search for resistant plant material. The objectives of this study were to examine the relative susceptibility of green (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) and Manchurian (F. mandshurica) ash to EAB and indigenous borers and whether that susceptibility changed with drought stress. In a common garden experiment, EAB occurred more frequently and reached higher abundances in green than Manchurian ash. The frequency and abundance of bark beetles (Curculionidae), North American native clearwing borers (Sesiidae), and longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae) were similar in the two ash species. Generation time of EAB was uniformly one year and did not depend on ash species or water stress. Although borers increased as expected in stressed trees, the relative susceptibility of green and Manchurian ash to borers did not change. The findings suggest Manchurian ash may be resistant to several classes of borers, regardless of insect geographic origin, although these conclusions should be viewed with some caution until the results can be verified in larger trees.

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A Metabolomic and HPLC-MS/MS Analysis of the Foliar Phenolics, Flavonoids and Coumarins of the Fraxinus Species Resistant and Susceptible to Emerald Ash Borer

Molecules ◽

10.3390/molecules23112734 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 23 (11) ◽

pp. 2734 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Sohail Qazi ◽

Domenic Lombardo ◽

Mamdouh Abou-Zaid

Keyword(s):

Emerald Ash Borer ◽

Principal Component ◽

Agrilus Planipennis ◽

Green Ash ◽

White Ash ◽

Constitutive Resistance ◽

Manchurian Ash ◽

Ash Trees ◽

Pumpkin Ash ◽

Blue Ash

The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis, Fairmaire, an Asian invasive alien buprestid has devastated tens of millions of ash trees (Fraxinus spp.) in North America. Foliar phytochemicals of the genus Fraxinus (Oleaceae): Fraxinus pennsylvanica (Green ash), F. americana (White ash), F. profunda (Bush) Bush. (Pumpkin ash), F. quadrangulata Michx. (Blue ash), F. nigra Marsh. (Black ash) and F. mandshurica (Manchurian ash) were investigated using HPLC-MS/MS and untargeted metabolomics. HPLC-MS/MS help identified 26 compounds, including phenolics, flavonoids and coumarins in varying amounts. Hydroxycoumarins, esculetin, esculin, fraxetin, fraxin, fraxidin and scopoletin were isolated from blue, black and Manchurian ashes. High-throughput metabolomics revealed 35 metabolites, including terpenes, secoiridoids and lignans. Metabolomic profiling indicated several upregulated putative compounds from Manchurian ash, especially fraxinol, ligstroside, oleuropin, matairesinol, pinoresinol glucoside, 8-hydroxypinoresinol-4-glucoside, verbenalin, hydroxytyrosol-1-O-glucoside, totarol and ar-artemisene. Further, dicyclomine, aphidicolin, parthenolide, famciclovir, ar-turmerone and myriocin were identified upregulated in blue ash. Principal component analysis demonstrated a clear separation between Manchurian and blue ashes from black, green, white and pumpkin ashes. The presence of defensive compounds upregulated in Manchurian ash, suggests their potential role in providing constitutive resistance to EAB, and reflects its co-evolutionary history with A. planipennis, where they appear to coexist in their native habitats.

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How does the Emerald Ash Borer ( Agrilus planipennis ) affect ecosystem services and biodiversity components in invaded areas?

EPPO Bulletin ◽

10.1111/epp.12734 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

G. Schrader ◽

R. Baker ◽

Y. Baranchikov ◽

L. Dumouchel ◽

K. S. Knight ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Emerald Ash Borer ◽

Agrilus Planipennis

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Predicting the potential for spread of emerald ash borer ( Agrilus planipennis ) in Great Britain: What can we learn from other affected areas?

Plants People Planet ◽

10.1002/ppp3.10195 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Cerian R. Webb ◽

Tamas Mona ◽

Christopher A. Gilligan

Keyword(s):

Great Britain ◽

Emerald Ash Borer ◽

Agrilus Planipennis

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The phyllosphere microbiome of host trees contributes more than leaf phytochemicals to variation in the Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire gut microbiome structure

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-95146-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Judith Mogouong ◽

Philippe Constant ◽

Pierre Legendre ◽

Claude Guertin

Keyword(s):

Microbial Community ◽

Gut Microbiome ◽

Strong Predictor ◽

Emerald Ash Borer ◽

Agrilus Planipennis ◽

Food Sources ◽

Microbiome Composition ◽

Living Organisms ◽

Insect Gut ◽

Gut Microbial Community

AbstractThe microbiome composition of living organisms is closely linked to essential functions determining the fitness of the host for thriving and adapting to a particular ecosystem. Although multiple factors, including the developmental stage, the diet, and host-microbe coevolution have been reported to drive compositional changes in the microbiome structures, very few attempts have been made to disentangle their various contributions in a global approach. Here, we focus on the emerald ash borer (EAB), an herbivorous pest and a real threat to North American ash tree species, to explore the responses of the adult EAB gut microbiome to ash leaf properties, and to identify potential predictors of EAB microbial variations. The relative contributions of specific host plant properties, namely bacterial and fungal communities on leaves, phytochemical composition, and the geographical coordinates of the sampling sites, to the EAB gut microbial community was examined by canonical analyses. The composition of the phyllosphere microbiome appeared to be a strong predictor of the microbial community structure in EAB guts, explaining 53 and 48% of the variation in fungi and bacteria, respectively. This study suggests a potential covariation of the microorganisms associated with food sources and the insect gut microbiome.

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Gut microbiome of the emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, and its relationship with insect population density

FEMS Microbiology Ecology ◽

10.1093/femsec/fiaa141 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 96 (8) ◽

Author(s):

Judith Mogouong ◽

Philippe Constant ◽

Robert Lavallée ◽

Claude Guertin

Keyword(s):

Population Density ◽

Gut Microbiome ◽

Emerald Ash Borer ◽

Agrilus Planipennis ◽

Economic Damage ◽

Taxonomic Structure ◽

Rrna Gene ◽

Local Conditions ◽

Β Diversity ◽

Α Diversity

ABSTRACT The gut microbial communities of beetles play crucial roles in their adaptive capacities. Environmental factors such as temperature or nutrition naturally affect the insect microbiome, but a shift in local conditions like the population density on a host tree could also lead to changes in the microbiota. The emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, is an exotic wood borer that causes environmental and economic damage to ash trees in North America. This study aimed to describe the taxonomic structure of the EAB gut microbiome and explore its potential relationship with borer population size. The number of EAB adults collected per tree through a 75 km transect from an epicenter allowed the creation of distinct classes of population density. The Gammaproteobacteria and Ascomycota predominated in bacterial and fungal communities respectively, as determined by sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene and the fungal internal transcribed spacer ITS2. Species richness and diversity of the bacterial community showed significant dependence on population density. Moreover, α-diversity and β-diversity analysis revealed some indicator amplicon sequence variants suggesting that the plasticity of the gut microbiome could be related to the EAB population density in host trees.

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