Data for: Soil microbiota explain differences in herbivore resistance between native and invasive populations of a perennial herb

Soil microbiota can either slow down or facilitate plant invasions through their effects on plant performance. Associations with soil microbiota can also modify other plant traits such as herbivore resistance, which can indirectly affect the outcome of plant introductions.
We studied the effects of soil microbiota on the perennial herbaceous legume Lupinus polyphyllus that hosts nitrogen-fixing mutualistic bacteria. We compared the plant performance, herbivore resistance, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of plants from native (North American) and invasive (Finnish) populations of the species that were inoculated with intact or autoclaved soil from an invasive population.
We found that plants of both origins greatly benefited from the intact soil inoculum with respect to all performance measures considered, suggesting that beneficial nitrogen-fixing rhizobia in the soil play a major role in shaping plant phenotypes. For three traits, effects of the intact soil inoculum were strong...