INFECTED/UNHEALTHY PLANTS ATTRACT MORE INSECTS Insects vector many plant pathogens.

Such insects locate and accept plants based on a range of cues produced by the plant. Infection of a plant by a pathogen may alter these cues making the plant more or less attractive to the vector (Sisterson, 2008). Indeed, insects have been found to prefer infected plants, healthy plants or to initially prefer one type and then switch to another. Such interactions are not unique to insect-vectored plant-pathogen systems. Insect vectors of animal pathogens also have been shown to prefer hosts based on their infection status (Nacher, 2005). Typically, preference for or aversion to infected plants is established by releasing insects in cages with healthy and infected plants and counting the number of insects on each plant type. Although such a design can establish the relative preference of an insect for infected or healthy plants, it indicates little about the mechanisms controlling this choice. Two hypotheses could account for differences in insect density on healthy and infected plants. First, insects may preferentially select infected or healthy plants based on visual or olfactory cues. Preference for infected plants is often hypothesized to be due to the yellowing of leaves caused by infection (Marucci et al. 2005). An alternative hypothesis is that insects reside on healthy or infected plants for longer or shorter periods of time in response to gustatory cues (referred to as feeding preference). Indeed, some studies have inferred that feeding is required for insects to differentiate between healthy and infected plants. Importantly, acquisition and transmission of the pathogen is not possible during the discrimination phase if orientation cues (i.e., visual or olfactory) are solely used to differentiate between healthy and infected plants. However, acquisition and transmission of the pathogen is possible during the discrimination phase if gustatory cues are used to differentiate between healthy and infected plants. Several studies indicate that vectors may use visual and olfactory orientation cues to discriminate between healthy and infected plants. As stated previously, preference for infected plants is often hypothesized to be due to the yellowing of leaves caused by infection (Marucci et al. 2005). This hypothesis is supported by studies demonstrating greater landing rates of alighting aphids on infected plants compared with healthy plants in some systems although this is not always the case. The use of long-range olfactory cues has been demonstrated for insect vectors of animal pathogens.

Egg deposition by herbivorous insects can induce a change of the plants volatile blend. The oviposition-induced plant volatiles were shown to attract egg parasitoids killing the eggs of the herbivores. Mainly oviposition-induced emission of terpenoids was found to play a role in parasitoid attraction. The some studies have demonstrated that insect egg deposition induces a change of plant volatile emission locally at the site of egg deposition and systemically was a study of elm (Ulmus minor Mill.) laden with eggs of the elm leaf beetle X. luteola (Meiners and Hilker, 2000). Odour from elm leaves laden with eggs was shown to attract a parasitoid species specialized on elm leaf beetle eggs. Thus, egg deposition can induce a change of the plants odour and leaf surface chemistry which serve indirect plant defense with the help of antagonists of the insect eggs (Meiners and Hilker, 2011). These egg-induced changes lead to attraction of egg parasitoids and their arrestance on a leaf, respectively. Lacroix et al. (2005) also demonstrated that Anopheles gambiae showed greater attraction to humans infected with Plasmodium falciparum in the transmissible stage relative to healthy humans and humans infected with the asexual stage of the pathogen. Based on these literatures, we support the hypothesis that infected/unhealthy plants will definitely attract more insects compared to healthy plants.

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References 1. Lacroix, R., W. R. Mukabana, L. C. Gouagna, and J. C. Koella. 2005. Malaria infection increases attractiveness of humans to mosquitoes. PLoS Biol. 3: 1590-1593. 2. Marucci, R. C., J.R.S. Lopes, J. D. Vendramim, and J. E. Corrente. 2005. Influence of Xylella fastidiosa infection on host selection by leafhopper vectors. Entomol. Exp. Appl. 117: 95-103. 3. Meiners, T., Hilker, M., 2000. Induction of plant synomones by oviposition of a phytophagous insect. J. Chem. Ecol. 26, 221. 4. Meiners, T., Hilker, M., 2011. A review. Plants and Insect eggs; How do they affect each other? J. Phytochemistry 72, 16121623. 5. Nacher, M. 2005. Charming the mosquito: do malaria symptoms increase the attractiveness of the host for the vector? Med. Hypotheses 64: 788-791. 6. Sisterson .M.S., 2008. Effects of Insect-Vector Preference for Healthy or Infected Plants on Pathogen Spread: Insights from a Model. Journal Of Economic Entomology Vol. 101, no. 1 pp 1-7.