14.08.2013 Views

UNIVERSITE DE BOURGOGNE THÈSE Yongbo LIU - Université de ...

UNIVERSITE DE BOURGOGNE THÈSE Yongbo LIU - Université de ...

UNIVERSITE DE BOURGOGNE THÈSE Yongbo LIU - Université de ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

population more able to spread to neighboring populations. Because the advantage of insect-<br />

resistant pl ants i ncreases un<strong>de</strong> r ha rsh c onditions, i t i s likely t hat r esistant pl ants w ould<br />

dominate t he popul ation a nd t hat t he popul ation w ould e volve f rom 0 t o 100 % r esistant<br />

within a short time. Letourneau and Hagen (2009) have found that B. rapa plants (including<br />

those protected and exposed to Bt -susceptible herbivores) produced more seeds in disked soil<br />

or field margins than in natural v egetation. If this population were to spread into disturbed<br />

habitats, the fate of adjacent wild populations could quickly <strong>de</strong>pend on the prevalence of the<br />

invading insect-resistant plants.<br />

Implication for the invasion of transgenic volunteers into wild populations<br />

The current study shows that sufficient simulated herbivory <strong>de</strong>creases plant fitness, showing<br />

that h ealthy p lants h ave a cl ear co mpetitive a dvantage. T his ad vantage v aried w ith t he<br />

percentage of resistant p lants i n t he popul ation, and w as m ore obvi ous un<strong>de</strong>r l ow r esource<br />

availability than when resources were high. In addition, the interaction between herbivory and<br />

competition ha d a n a dditive e ffect on pl ant f itness. H owever, pl ants had t he a bility f or<br />

compensatory growth f ollowing i njury b y h erbivory. Low c ompetition a nd s ufficient<br />

resources support regrowth in semi-natural environments. Thus, at the final equilibrium (i.e.<br />

resistance gene f ixed i n a popul ation) ve getative a nd reproductive p roduction of wild<br />

populations was not significantly altered. The overall productive output of the pure resistant<br />

population w as t he s ame as t he i nsect-attacked pure popul ation ( Figure 3.8), m eaning t hat<br />

changing t he popul ation f rom s usceptible t o i nsect-resistant w ould not r esult i n di fferent<br />

<strong>de</strong>mographic k inetics. T herefore, t hese results s uggest t hat, al though i nsect-resistant p lants<br />

can inva<strong>de</strong> and completely replace wild susceptible populations, which still is one of major<br />

concerns on c ommercial r elease o f t ransgenic crops, t here will be no change t o t he pl ant<br />

community e quilibrium due t o t he i ntrinsic c hange i n t he B. j uncea <strong>de</strong>mography, unl ess<br />

herbivorous insects switch to another species. This could result in more resources available in<br />

the habitat for the insect-resistant species.<br />

Acknowledgements<br />

This work was supported by a PhD joint fellowship between France and China (CNOUS, No.<br />

20072315) and a fund from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC grant<br />

No. 30970432).<br />

111

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!