Virus Infection of Plants Alters Pollinator Preference: A Payback for Susceptible Hosts?
Fig 5
Impacts of CMV infection and artificial buzz-pollination on tomato seed production.
(A, B) Tomato plants infected with cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) (strain Fny) produced fewer seeds (A) than mock-inoculated (Mock) plants but seed mass was not affected (B). However, buzz-pollination significantly enhanced seed production (A) but not seed mass (B). Artificial buzz pollination was achieved by touching flower stalks of matured flowers with an electrical toothbrush. This was done three times just before, during and after apparent flower maturation to ensure efficient buzz-pollination. Successful buzz-pollination was noted by observing pollen release from the anther cone. Letters indicate significant differences. A) Mean seed number per fruit (two-way ANOVA: infection status, F(1,10) = 220.9938, p = 3.811e-08; pollination treatment, F(1,10) = 61.5886, p = 1.393e-05; infection status x pollination treatment, F(1,10) = 0.4701, p = 0.5085). B) Mean mass per seed (two-way ANOVA: infection status, F(1,8) = 0.9291, p = 0.3633; pollination treatment, F(1,8) = 0.0030, p = 0.9577; infection status x pollination treatment, F(1,8) = 0.0825, p = 0.7812). Error bars represent the standard error of the mean; n = 3 plants per experiment.