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Multitrophic interactions and the chemical ecology of nematodes
J. G. ALI (1). (1) Michigan State University, Entomology Department, East Lansing, MI, U.S.A.

Plants can influence the behavior of and modify community composition of soil dwelling organisms through the exudation of organic molecules. Given the chemical complexity of the soil matrix, soil-dwelling organisms have evolved the ability to detect and respond to these cues for successful foraging. A key question is how specific these responses are and how they may evolve. Soil nematodes are a group of diverse functional and taxonomic types, which may reveal a variety of responses. Herbivore-induced volatile emissions benefit plant hosts by recruiting natural enemies of herbivorous insects. Such tritrophic interactions have been examined thoroughly in aboveground terrestrial environments. Recently, similar signals have been described in the subterranean environment, which may be of equal importance for indirect plant defense. Our work has shown that plant roots of citrus defend themselves against root herbivores by releasing an herbivore-induced plant volatile (HIPV), pregeijerene (1,5-dimethylcyclodeca-1,5,7-triene), that attracts naturally occurring entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) to larvae when applied in the field. However, the soil community is complex, containing a diversity of interspecies relationships that modulate food web assemblages. In a series of experiments we examine the specificity of this HIPV in the complex nematode community, including beneficial entomopathogenic nematodes, plant-parasitic nematodes, as well as, hyperparasitic nematodes and nematophagous fungi. We provide the first evidence showing subterranean HIPVs behave much the same as those aboveground, attracting not only parasitoids, but also hyperparasites and other food web members.

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