Native to the northeast USA, highbush blueberry is a crop domesticated for close to 100 years and that has been selected mainly for high yields and bigger fruit. We hypothesized that, due to domestication and associated agronomic selection (i.e., cultivation practices), cultivated blueberries differ from their wild ancestors in fruit volatile emissions, affecting the response of a frugivorous pest. To test this hypothesis, we compared the attraction of adult spotted-wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) to wild and cultivated blueberry fruit volatiles in choice assays. We also conducted headspace volatile chemical analysis and electroantennographic detection (EAD) analysis to identify and quantify any antennally active compounds. For this, fruit from wild and cultivated blueberries, growing in proximity, was sampled from six farms located in the Pinelands National Reserve (New Jersey, USA)—a blueberry-producing region with a forest understory consisting largely of wild blueberries. On a per gram basis, we found that wild blueberries are more attractive to D. suzukii flies and have higher volatile emission rates than cultivated blueberries. Nine EAD-active compounds from wild blueberries (isobutyl acetate, ethyl butyrate, ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, ethyl 3-methylbutyrate, hexanal, isoamyl acetate, 3-hydroxybutanone (acetoin), 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one, and 1-hexanol) were attractive individually and as a blend to D. suzukii flies. However, a 4-component blend composed of isoamyl acetate, acetoin, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one, and 1-hexanol was more attractive to D. suzukii than the 9-component blend. Altogether, our results show that the domestication/cultivation of blueberries is associated with lower rates of fruit volatile emissions, which has resulted in decreased attraction of a frugivorous pest, D. suzukii.

高灌木蓝莓原产于美国东北部，是一种已驯化近100年的农作物，主要是为了获得高产和更大的果实而选择的。我们假设，由于驯化和相关的农艺选择（即耕种方法），栽培蓝莓在水果挥发物排放方面不同于其野生祖先，从而影响了食味性害虫的响应。为了验证该假设，我们比较了成年斑翅果蝇（Drosophila suzukii）的吸引力），以选择分析法分析野生和栽培的蓝莓果实挥发物。我们还进行了顶空挥发性化学分析和血管造影检测（EAD）分析，以识别和量化任何具有天线活性的化合物。为此，从位于附近的派恩兰兹国家自然保护区（美国新泽西州）的六个农场采样了野生和栽培蓝莓的果实，该农场位于蓝莓产区，森林下层主要由野生蓝莓组成。以每克为基础，我们发现野生蓝莓对铃木D.更具吸引力。会飞，并且挥发的排放率要比栽培蓝莓高。来自野生蓝莓的9种EAD活性化合物（乙酸异丁酯，丁酸乙酯，2-甲基丁酸乙酯，3-甲基丁酸乙酯，己醛，乙酸异戊酯，3-羟基丁酮（乙酰丁香），6-甲基-5-庚二烯-2-酮和1-己醇）既吸引人又吸引了铃木蝇（D. suzukii）的飞行。然而，由乙酸异戊酯，丙酮酸，6-甲基-5-庚-2-酮和1-己醇组成的4组分共混物比9组分共混物对铃木更有吸引力。总而言之，我们的结果表明，蓝莓的驯化/栽培与水果挥发物排放量的降低有关，这导致了食味害虫铃木D.的吸引力降低。