Effects of soil phosphorus, light, AMF and jasmonic acid on growth and defense of Plantago lanceolata

This dataset contains data from a two-part greenhouse experiments
described in the paper: “Qu, L., Wang, M., and Biere, A. (2021)
Interactive effects of Mycorrhizae, Soil Phosphorus and Light on Growth
and Induction and Priming of Defense in Plantago lanceolata. Frontiers in
Plant Science 12: 647372”.  The experiment investigates the
effects of a factorial combination of three factors: inoculation with AMF
(the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Funneliformis mosseae; yes/no), soil
phosphorus level (Soil P, 10.5 vs. 105 mg P/kg soil), and light intensity
(15% vs. 50% shade), on growth and defense of ribwort plantain (Plantago
lanceolata). In the first experiment (“Sequential harvests”), the effect
of these three factors is studied on plant biomass accumulation and
allocation, shoot and root morphology, and biochemistry at four
consecutive harvests, 3, 6, 9, and 12 weeks after seedling
transplantation. In the second experiment (“Bioassays”), detached leaves
of plants grown under a factorial combination of the abovementioned three
factors are offered to caterpillars of the noctuid Mamestra bassicae at
two time points (7 weeks and 10 weeks after seedling transplantation) to
study the amount of leaf area and weight eaten by caterpillars and the
amount of biomass accumulated by caterpillars during short bioassays. Two
days before the bioassays plants were treated with jasmonic acid
(JA, 0.5 ml of a 9.5 mM solution) or a mock treatment to study whether the
three factors described above influence the extend to which the plant’s
and caterpillar’s respond to the JA treatment (JA-induced defense). Main
results of the experiments are that (1) AMF reduces biomass
production, the strength depending on light and soil P conditions;
(2) JA application induces resistance to M.
brassicae, its extent being independent of light and soil P
conditions; (3) in younger plants, JA-induced resistance is repressed
by AMF under high resource conditions; (4) in older plants, low
soil P and light enhance susceptibility to M. brassicae due to
enhanced leaf nitrogen levels and reduced leaf levels of the defense
metabolite catalpol.