Field-Grown Rice Plants Become More Productive When Exposed to Artificially Damaged Weed Volatiles at the Seedling Stage

Abstract

It is known that undamaged plants that have been exposed to volatiles from damaged con- or heterospecific plants become more resistant against herbivores. This is one of the plants’ induced resistant responses against herbivores. To test whether this response can be used for rice production, we conducted the following experiments over 2 years (2012 and 2013). Rice seedlings were first planted in the rice seedling bed for 2 weeks in early May. There, half of the rice seedlings were exposed to artificially damaged weed volatiles three times for 12 days (treated plants). Weeds were randomly collected from the areas that were >100 m away from the seedling bed and the rice paddy fields. The remaining seedlings were not exposed (control plants). In the middle of May, bunches (ca. three seedlings per bunch) were transplanted to the rice paddy field. In July, leaf damage was observed. The total number of leaves in the treated and control plants was not significantly different. In contrast, the total number of damaged leaves in the treated plants was significantly lower than that in the control plants. In September, rice grains were harvested. The average weight of a rice grain from the treated and control plants was not significantly different. However, the weight of grains per bunch of treated plants was significantly higher than that of control plants; this indicated a significant increase of the number of grains by 23% in 2012 and by 18% in 2013 in the treated plants compared to that in the control plants. The volatiles emitted from the weeds included monoterpenoids (40.4% in total), green leaf volatiles (46.5%), short-chain alcohols (5.3%), short-chain ketone (5.4%), short-chain acetate (0.5%), short-chain aldehyde (1.1%), and hydrocarbon (0.7%). These results suggest that exposure of volatiles from artificially damaged weeds to rice seedlings has the potential to increase rice production.