2026-05-28 ワシントン大学（UW）
When bean plants sense a caterpillar eating their leaves, they release gases that invite predatory wasps to help defend them. Shown here are two different species of predatory wasps attacking a caterpillar on a bean plant. Photo: Brian Behnken/University of Washington
＜関連情報＞
- https://www.washington.edu/news/2026/05/28/may-research-highlights-rapid-river-migration-bean-plant-defense-tiny-tensegrities-more/
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aec3229
植物免疫受容体は、幼虫の検出と捕食者の誘引を結びつけることで、三栄養段階間の相互作用を媒介する A plant immune receptor mediates tritrophic interactions by linking caterpillar detection to predator recruitment
Natalia Guayazán Palacios, Patrick Grof-Tisza, Brian Behnken, Carla Marques Arce, […] , and Adam D. Steinbrenner
Science Advances Published:27 May 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aec3229
Abstract
Plants deploy direct and indirect defenses in response to insect herbivory. The specific antiherbivore responses involve cell surface immune receptors that recognize herbivore-associated molecular patterns (HAMPs), yet the ecological relevance of this molecular interplay in natural settings remains unexplored. Here, we demonstrate with laboratory and field experimentation in Mexico that the inceptin receptor (INR) in the leaves of common bean orchestrates a tritrophic interaction upon recognition of inceptin, a HAMP in caterpillar oral secretions. Near-isogenic lines with a naturally occurring null mutation in INR revealed that inceptin recognition does not only amplify the wound response but activates an herbivore-specific immune pathway to trigger the emission of a distinctive volatile blend that recruits predatory wasps to effectively remove caterpillars from the plants. These findings provide a definitive molecular-to-ecological link, revealing how a single immune receptor mediates ecologically relevant plant-insect-predator interactions in nature.
