Drought-Stressed Tomato Plants Trigger Bottom-Up Effects on the Invasive Tetranychus evansi.

ABSTRACT: Climate change will bring more drought periods that will have an impact on the irrigation practices of some crops like tomato, from standard water regime to deficit irrigation. This will promote changes in plant metabolism and alter their interactions with biotic stressors. We have tested if mild or moderate drought-stressed tomato plants (simulating deficit irrigation) have an effect on the biological traits of the invasive tomato red spider mite, Tetranychus evansi. Our data reveal that T evansi caused more leaf damage to drought-stressed tomato plants (≥1.5 fold for both drought scenarios). Mite performance was also enhanced, as revealed by significant increases of eggs laid (≥2 fold) at 4 days post infestation (dpi), and of mobile forms (≥2 fold and 1.5 fold for moderate and mild droug

SUBMITTER: Ximenez-Embun MG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4703393 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature