Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover.

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors.

Plant-plant communication and community of herbivores on tall goldenrod.

The volatiles from damaged plants induce defense in neighboring plants. The phenomenon is called plant-plant communication, plant talk, or plant eavesdropping. Plant-plant communication has been reported to be stronger between kin plants than genetically far plants in sagebrush.

Evidence that ERF transcriptional regulators serve as possible key molecules for natural variation in defense against herbivores in tall goldenrod.

We collected Solidago altissima clones to explore their leaf damage resistance, and as a result identified five accessions that exhibited variable defense abilities against the generalist herbivore Spodoptera litura. In order to characterize molecules involved in such natural variation, we focused on ethylene response factors (ERFs) that exhibited distinct transcription patterns in the leaves of the five accessions (e.g.

Herbivore community promotes trait evolution in a leaf beetle via induced plant response.

Several recent studies have emphasised that community composition alters species trait evolution. Here, we demonstrate that differences in composition of local herbivore communities lead to divergent trait evolution of the leaf beetle Plagiodera versicolora through plant-mediated indirect interactions. Our field surveys, genetic analyses and community-manipulation experiments show that herbivore community composition determines the degree of herbivore-induced regrowth of willows (Salicaceae), which in turn, promotes the divergent evolution of feeding preference in the leaf beetle from exclusive preference for new leaves to a lack of preference among leaf-age types.

Plant genotypic diversity increases population size of a herbivorous insect.

It is critical to incorporate the process of population dynamics into community genetics studies to identify the mechanisms of the linkage between host plant genetics and associated communities. We studied the effects of plant genotypic diversity of tall goldenrod Solidago altissima on the population dynamics of the aphid Uroleucon nigrotuberculatum. We found genotypic variation in plant resistance to the aphid in our experiments.

Evolution of feeding preference in a leaf beetle: the importance of phenotypic plasticity of a host plant.

Much attention has been paid to ecology and evolution of damage-induced plant responses. Recently, it has been emphasized that phenotypic plasticity, such as induced plant responses, has the potential to lead to evolutionary changes of interacting partners. Here, we report that induced plant regrowth promotes a locally adaptive feeding preference of a leaf beetle, Plagiodera versicolora.