Most plant species naturally associate with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which are known to promote crop nutrition and health in agroecosystems. However, information on how mycorrhizal associations affect plant biotic interactions that occur aboveground with foliar herbivores is limited and needs to be further addressed for the development of pest management strategies. With the objective to examine the influence of maize mycorrhizas on foliar herbivory caused by larvae of Spodoptera frugiperda, a serious pest in maize agroecosystems, we performed a fully factorial greenhouse pot experiment with three factors: Maize genotype (Puma and Milpal H318), AMF (with and without AMF, and without AMF with mineral P) and Insect herbivory (with and without S. frugiperda). Main results showed that inoculation with AMF improved plant growth and foliar P concentration, which coincided with increased foliar damage from herbivory and higher biomass of S. frugiperda larvae. A significant positive correlation between shoot P concentration and larval biomass was also observed. Finally, foliar herbivory by S. frugiperda slightly increased and decreased AMF root colonization in Puma and H318, respectively. In conclusion, our results show that maize plant benefits from AMF in terms of promotion of growth and nutrition, and may also increase the damage caused from insects by improving the food quality of maize leaves for larval growth, which seems to be linked to increased P uptake by the maize mycorrhizal association.

中文翻译：

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丛枝菌根真菌促进的玉米生长和P吸收增加与秋季粘虫夜蛾Spodoptera frugiperda的较高叶食草和幼虫生物量相吻合。

大多数植物物种自然与丛枝菌根真菌（AMF）结合，已知该菌能促进农业生态系统中的作物营养和健康。但是，有关菌根结合如何影响与叶食草动物在地上发生的植物生物相互作用的信息是有限的，为开发害虫管理策略需要进一步解决。为了研究玉米菌根对由斜纹夜蛾幼虫（玉米农业生态系统中的一种严重害虫）引起的叶食草的影响，我们进行了一个全因子温室盆栽试验，该试验包括三个因素：玉米基因型（Puma和Milpal H318），AMF（玉米基因型）有和没有AMF，以及没有AMF和矿物P）和昆虫食草动物（有和没有S. frugiperda）。主要结果表明，接种AMF可以改善植物生长和叶片P的浓度，这与草食性小叶草和较高生物量的S. frugiperda幼虫对叶片的伤害增加有关。还观察到苗磷浓度与幼虫生物量之间显着正相关。最后，通过叶面虫食的S.frugiperda略有增加，在彪马和H318，分别减少AMF定殖。总之，我们的结果表明，玉米植物在促进生长和营养方面受益于AMF，并且还可以通过改善幼虫生长的玉米叶片的食品质量来增加由昆虫引起的伤害，这似乎与磷增加有关。玉米菌根协会的吸收。