Several species of entomopathogenic fungi (EPF), often considered as bioinsecticides, are able to colonize and establish a symbiotic relationship with plants as endophytes. Recent studies have demonstrated that insects feeding on endophytically colonized plants could have reduced survival. These newly emerging, but not yet fully understood, ecological roles suggest the possibility that EPF may affect preferences and performance of herbivorous insects. However, such plant-mediated effects and underlying mechanisms are largely unexplored. Here, we examined that the endophytic EPF, Beauveria bassiana, could affect oviposition selection and offspring fitness of Asian corn borer, Ostrinia furnacalis on maize, Zea mays. We observed that O. furnacalis females preferred to lay eggs on B. bassiana-inoculated maize plants. This was attributed to the changes in plant volatile profiles upon endophytic colonization by B. bassiana. Of these plant volatiles, we observed increased amounts of insect-preferred compounds, 2-ethyl-1-hexanol and 3-hexen-1-ol, and decreased amounts of non-preferred compounds β-caryophyllene, naphthalene and α-pinene. This finding suggests that B. bassiana-induced plant volatiles could modulate the interactions between plants and insects. However, fewer O. furnacalis larvae, pupae, and adults survived on the B. bassiana-colonized maize plants and this was correlated with lower plant nitrogen content in these plants. These results indicated that oviposition selection of O. furnacalis did not reflect the maximization of offspring fitness following maize inoculation with B. bassiana. We suggest that EPF-inoculated maize causes a detrimental attraction for O. furnacalis, which should be considered for potential application of “trap plants” when incorporating endophytic EPF within integrated pest management programs.

几种昆虫病原真菌 (EPF)，通常被认为是生物杀虫剂，能够作为内生菌定殖并与植物建立共生关系。最近的研究表明，以内生定殖植物为食的昆虫可能会降低存活率。这些新出现但尚未完全了解的生态作用表明 EPF 可能会影响食草昆虫的偏好和表现。然而，这种植物介导的影响和潜在机制在很大程度上尚未探索。在这里，我们检查了内生 EPF，白僵菌，可能影响亚洲玉米螟，玉米螟，玉米，玉米的产卵选择和后代适应性。我们观察到O. furnacalis雌性更喜欢在B. bassiana接种的玉米植物上产卵。这归因于B. bassiana内生定殖后植物挥发性成分的变化。在这些植物挥发物中，我们观察到昆虫偏好的化合物 2-ethyl-1-hexanol 和 3-hexen-1-ol 的量增加，而非偏好的化合物β-石竹烯、萘和α-蒎烯的量减少。这一发现表明B. bassiana诱导的植物挥发物可以调节植物和昆虫之间的相互作用。然而，较少的O. furnacalis幼虫、蛹和成虫在B. bassiana上存活-定殖的玉米植物，这与这些植物中较低的植物氮含量相关。这些结果表明，O. furnacalis的产卵选择不能反映玉米接种B. bassiana后后代适应度的最大化。我们建议接种 EPF 的玉米会对O. furnacalis产生有害的吸引力，当将内生 EPF 纳入害虫综合管理计划时，应考虑“诱捕植物”的潜在应用。