Abstract:
The use of herbicides on crops often results in unintentional, low-dose exposure of non-target organisms, such as insects. While these exposures are increasingly known to alter the survival and physiology of insects, it remains unclear whether these effects can vary between populations and modify other fitness-related traits, such as behaviour and immunity. Here, we addressed these questions by testing the effects of sublethal exposure to a glyphosate-based herbicide (GBH) on the behaviour and immunity of European earwig males from six natural populations. We exposed each male to a dose of a common GBH (Roundup©) that was either recommended for crops, five times lower than that recommended for crops, or to a control solution. Twenty-four hours later, we measured the activity, boldness, and aggregation of each male. We then exposed them to an entomopathogenic fungus, monitored their survival for 6 weeks, and measured the immune response of the survivors. We found a condition-dependent effect of GBH exposure on male activity. Exposure to low doses induced a positive association between activity and weight, which was not observed in the high-dose and control groups. However, GBH had no effect on any of the other measured traits. All these results were consistent across the six populations tested, although we did find population-specific differences in almost all measurements on males. Further research is now needed to better understand the dose-response to GBH on male activity and its biological impact, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of detoxification processes in this species. Overall, these results emphasise the importance of investigating the effects of herbicides on insects to expand our general understanding of the use and potential risks of plant protection products in integrated pest management programs.
摘要:
在作物上使用除草剂往往会导致无意中,低剂量暴露于非目标生物,比如昆虫。虽然人们越来越知道这些暴露会改变昆虫的生存和生理,目前尚不清楚这些影响是否会在人群之间有所不同,并改变其他与健身相关的特征,比如行为和免疫力。这里,我们通过测试亚致死性暴露于草甘膦除草剂(GBH)对来自六个自然种群的欧洲雄性雄性的行为和免疫力的影响来解决这些问题。我们将每个雄性暴露于推荐用于农作物的普通GBH(Roundup©)剂量,比作物建议的低五倍,或控制解决方案。二十四小时后,我们测量了活动,大胆,和每个男性的聚集。然后我们将它们暴露在昆虫病原真菌中,监测他们的存活6周,并测量了幸存者的免疫反应。我们发现GBH暴露对男性活动的条件依赖性影响。暴露于低剂量诱导活动和体重之间的正相关,在高剂量组和对照组中未观察到。然而,GBH对任何其他测量性状均无影响。所有这些结果在测试的六个人群中都是一致的,尽管我们确实在几乎所有男性的测量中发现了特定人群的差异。现在需要进一步的研究来更好地了解GBH对男性活动的剂量反应及其生物学影响,以及评估该物种解毒过程的有效性。总的来说,这些结果强调了研究除草剂对昆虫的影响的重要性,以扩大我们对综合虫害管理计划中植物保护产品的使用和潜在风险的一般理解。