Data from: Legacy effects of herbivory enhance performance and resistance of progeny plants

1. Herbivory-induced changes in plant resistance and tolerance traits can mediate the interaction between spatially and temporally separated above- and belowground herbivores. However, it is unknown how long the impact of transient herbivory events last or if legacy effects can be detected systemically in the plant and across plant generations. 2. Here, we studied the impact of transient aboveground herbivory by the specialist caterpillar Manduca sexta on the plant traits of wild tobacco Nicotiana attenuata and the consequences for belowground root-knot nematodes Meloidogyne incognita in short-term, long-term, and transgenerational experiments. 3. In the short- and long-term experiments, above- and belowground herbivory had significant, albeit independent, impacts on key plant traits such as plant biomass, nutrient content, and secondary metabolites. In addition, herbivory influenced fitness parameters such as seed yield and quality. In the long-term and transgenerational experiments, transient aboveground herbivory had facilitating effects on nematodes, irrespective of any treatments of the parental plants. We found evidence for transgenerational legacy effects of both above- and belowground herbivory on the resistance of progeny plants against aboveground herbivores. Additionally, belowground herbivory in the parental generation increased the root biomass of progeny plants. 4. Synthesis. Our results suggest that herbivory may have a long-term impact on plant fitness by improving the performance of progeny plants challenged by above- and belowground herbivory.

1. 植食诱导的植物抗性与耐性性状变化，可介导时空分离的地上与地下植食者之间的互作。然而，目前尚不清楚瞬时植食事件的影响能持续多久，也未明确植物体内是否可系统性检测到跨植物世代的遗留效应。
2. 本研究以专食性毛虫烟草天蛾（Manduca sexta）造成的瞬时地上植食为对象，针对野生烟草（Nicotiana attenuata）的性状以及地下根结线虫（Meloidogyne incognita）的相关后果，分别开展了短期、长期与跨世代实验。
3. 在短期与长期实验中，地上与地下植食均对植物生物量、养分含量与次生代谢物等关键植物性状产生了显著但独立的影响。此外，植食还会影响种子产量与品质等适合度参数。在长期与跨世代实验中，无论亲本植株接受何种处理，瞬时地上植食均对根结线虫产生了促进效应。本研究发现，地上与地下植食均可产生跨世代遗留效应，使子代植株对地上植食者的抗性发生改变。此外，亲本世代的地下植食可提升子代植株的根系生物量。
4. 综合分析。本研究结果表明，植食可通过提升受地上与地下植食胁迫的子代植株的表现，对植物适合度产生长期影响。