Marcel Dicke's research
Insects and mites are small organisms that are very well informed about their environment. They can use chemical cues such as volatiles or non-volatile cues to obtain information on the presence of e.g. their food, competitors, sexual partners, and enemies. Insects are members of complex communities consisting of e.g. plants, herbivorous, carnivorous arthropods and pollinators.
The ecology of body odour
Herbivorous and carnivorous arthropods use plant volatiles when foraging for food. In response to herbivory plants emit a chemical blend that may be quantitatively and qualitatively different from the blend emitted when intact (plant ‘cry for help’). This induced volatile blend alters the interactions of the plant with its environment. It has been well established that carnivores (predators and parasitoids) are attracted by the volatiles induced by their herbivorous victims. Apart from a benefit from attracting carnivores, the induced volatiles can have a serious cost because herbivores may be attracted. Yet, whether the attracted herbivores settle on the plant that emits the volatiles may depend on the presence of herbivore and/or carnivore cues that indicate that the plant is a competitor- and/or enemy-dense space. Thus, the benefit of emission of induced volatiles is likely to depend on environmental conditions. Whether plants can influence the emission of the induced volatiles, taking the prevalent environmental conditions into account, is an interesting question that needs to be addressed. The induced volatiles may also affect interactions of the emitting plant with its neighbours, e.g. through altered competitive ability or by the neighbour exploiting the emitted information. This is a topic that should receive more attention.We investigate the ecology of infochemicals through a multidisciplinary approach, from genes to the community.
Apart from research on infochemicals in plant-arthropod interactions, we have also started a study on the role of infochemicals in chicken-mite interactions and the potential for exploiting the infochemicals to control mites that attack chicken.
Our research focuses on:
- Chemical ecology of multitrophic interactions: what chemicals are induced in plants by herbivory, what is their effect on arthropod behaviour, and how do the cues affect interactions in the community?
- Plant-mediated interactions among microbes, herbivorous insects, carnivorous insects and pollinating insects.
- Molecular ecology of multitrophic interactions: what signal-transduction pathways are induced in plants by herbivory, what genes are induced, what transcriptome changes occur in response to attack by different types of organisms?
- Behavioural ecology of predator avoidance: how do predator cues affect prey behaviour?
Publications
-
Insects to feed the world - Editorial
Journal of Insects as Food and Feed (2015), Volume: 1, Issue: 1 - ISSN 2352-4588 - p. 3-5. -
Altered volatile profile associated with precopulatory mate guarding attracts spider mite males
Journal of Chemical Ecology (2015), Volume: 41 - ISSN 0098-0331 - p. 187-193. -
Enhancing dissemination of Beauveria bassiana with host plant base incision trapfor the management of the banana weevil Cosmopolites sordidus
African Journal of Agricultural Research (2015), Volume: 10, Issue: 41 - ISSN 1991-637X - p. 3878-3884. -
Plant-mediated effects of butterfly egg deposition on subsequent caterpillar and pupal development, across different species of wild Brassicaceae
Ecological Entomology (2015), Volume: 40, Issue: 4 - ISSN 0307-6946 - p. 444-450. -
Understanding the long-lasting attraction of malaria mosquitoes to odor baits
PLoS ONE (2015), Volume: 10, Issue: 3 - ISSN 1932-6203 -
Density-Dependent Interference of Aphids with Caterpillar-Induced Defenses in Arabidopsis: Involvement of Phytohormones and Transcription Factors
Plant and Cell Physiology (2015), Volume: 56, Issue: 1 - ISSN 0032-0781 - p. 98-106. -
Herbivore-induced plant volatiles as a rich source of information for arthropod predators: fundamental and applied aspects
Journal of the Indian Institute of Science (2015), Volume: 95, Issue: 1 - ISSN 0019-4964 - p. 35-42. -
Six-legged protein
Oxygen (2015), Volume: 26 - p. 68-71. -
Protecting the environment through insect farming as a means to produce protein for use as livestock, poultry, and aquaculture feed
Journal of Insects as Food and Feed (2015), Volume: 1, Issue: 4 - ISSN 2352-4588 - p. 307-309. -
Varied responses by yeast-like symbionts during virulence adaptation in a monophagous phloem-feeding insect
Arthropod-Plant Interactions (2015), Volume: 9, Issue: 3 - ISSN 1872-8855 - p. 215-224.