Nicotine's Defensive Function in Nature

<div><p>Plants produce metabolites that directly decrease herbivore performance, and as a consequence, herbivores are selected for resistance to these metabolites. To determine whether these metabolites actually function as defenses requires measuring the performance of plants that are altered only in the production of a certain metabolite. To date, the defensive value of most plant resistance traits has not been demonstrated in nature. We transformed native tobacco<em>(Nicotiana attenuata)</em> with a consensus fragment of its two <em>putrescine N-methyl transferase (pmt)</em> genes in either antisense or inverted-repeat (IR<em>pmt</em>) orientations. Only the latter reduced (by greater than 95%) constitutive and inducible nicotine. With D₄-nicotinic acid (NA), we demonstrate that silencing <em>pmt</em> inhibits nicotine production, while the excess NA dimerizes to form anatabine. Larvae of the nicotine-adapted herbivore Manduca sexta (tobacco hornworm) grew faster and, like the beetle <em>Diabrotica undecimpunctata,</em> preferred IR<em>pmt</em> plants in choice tests. When planted in their native habitat, IR<em>pmt</em> plants were attacked more frequently and, compared to wild-type plants, lost 3-fold more leaf area from a variety of native herbivores, of which the beet armyworm, <em>Spodoptera exigua,</em> and <em>Trimerotropis</em> spp. grasshoppers caused the most damage. These results provide strong evidence that nicotine functions as an efficient defense in nature and highlights the value of transgenic techniques for ecological research.</p>