2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Interactive networks between plants and insect herbivores through defense chemicals in the leaves

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23780167
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Forest science
Research Institution	Kyoto University (2012-2013) Tokyo Metropolitan University (2011)
Principal Investigator	TAKAHASHI Akiko 京都大学, 野生動物研究センター, 研究員 (60568236)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	生物間相互作用 / 誘導防御 / 被食防御 / フェノール / ブナ科
Research Abstract	To examine changes of defense level and the extent in induced defense in leaves according to feeding by insect herbivores, I developed nondestructive models for estimating total phenol content in leaves with near infrared spectroscopy. I modeled relationship between absorbance spectra of Quercus serrata, Q. myrsinaefolia, and Q. glauca leaves and total phenol content by partial least squares regression, and obtained the best calibration models of each species based on the standard errors of predictions. Then I carried out feeding experiment by herbivores with Q. serrata and Q. glauca, and their models. It showed a tendency that the content of total phenols increased in the treated shoots and ones which grew on upper position of the treated ones, while this result should be examined again because of the large confidential interval in values estimated with the calibration models.