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Earthworms Enhance Crop Resistance to Insects Under Microplastic Stress by Mobilizing Physical and Chemical Defenses
Summary
Researchers discovered that earthworms in microplastic-contaminated soil actually helped tomato plants defend themselves better against caterpillar pests by boosting the plants' physical and chemical defenses. The earthworms mitigated some negative effects of microplastics on soil health while enhancing the plants' natural pest resistance. This study shows that healthy soil ecosystems with earthworms may help buffer some of the harmful agricultural effects of microplastic pollution.
To assess the ecological risk of microplastics (MPs) in agricultural systems, it is critical to simultaneously focus on MP-mediated single-organism response and different trophic-level organism interaction. Herein, we placed earthworms in soils contaminated with different concentrations (0.02% and 0.2% w/w) of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) MPs to investigate the effect of earthworms on tomato against Helicoverpa armigera (H. armigera) under MPs stress. We found that earthworms alleviated the inhibitory effects of MPs stress on tomato growth and disrupted H. armigera growth. Compared to individual MPs exposure, earthworm incorporation significantly increased the silicon and lignin content in herbivore-damaged tomato leaves by 19.1% and 57.6%, respectively. Metabolites involved in chemical defense (chlorogenic acid) and phytohormones (jasmonic acid) were also activated by earthworm incorporation. Furthermore, earthworms effectively reduced oxidative damage induced by H. armigera via promoting antioxidant metabolism. Overall, our results suggest that utilizing earthworms to regulate above- and below-ground interactions could be a promising strategy for promoting green agriculture.