TrendsTalk

Interview with Marcel Dicke: the Droste

effect in science
Marcel Dicke
Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University, Radix building, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708PB Wageningen,
The Netherlands

Marcel Dicke grew up at the outskirts of Rotterdam, The
Netherlands. He enjoyed strolling through the meadows
and jumping over ditches to observe animals and plants.
He was interested in life in general and his interest in
biology, and especially ecology, was aroused by his inspir-
ing high school teacher Piet Groeneboom. Marcel enrolled
in the biology curriculum at Leiden University because of
its reputation in ecology and obtained his MSc degree cum
laude. One of his thesis projects addressed the chemical
ecology of parasitoid-host interactions, supervised by Joop
van Lenteren. He moved on to Wageningen University to
investigate tritrophic interactions and herbivore-induced
plant volatiles. His research showed that herbivory results
in the de novo biosynthesis of plant volatiles that attract
carnivorous enemies of plant herbivores, which required
extensive tests with ample controls to convince his peers.
He obtained his PhD degree (advisors Maurice Sabelis and
Joop van Lenteren) with the qualification cum laude and
continued his career at Wageningen University which
provided him with a stimulating, multidisciplinary envi-
ronment. He is now chair of the Laboratory of Entomology
within the Plant Science Group.
What influenced your path into plant biology?
My training was in animal ecology and I had an addi-
tional interest in chemistry. How arthropod predators and
parasitoids locate and identify their victims was a question
that intrigued me. My MSc thesis was on infochemicals
that parasitoids use to locate Drosophila larvae; specifical-
ly from a distance parasitoids use indirect information in
the form of volatiles, released from yeasts that the Dro-
sophila larvae feed on. My PhD thesis was on location of
prey by predatory mites and here too were indications that
indirect cues guided the predators. My research showed
that plants provide an essential link between predator and
prey because plants respond to herbivory with the emission
of specific blends of volatiles that attract the predators.
Fascinated by this, I dived deeper and deeper into the
responses of plants to herbivory and it is now clear that
these have important consequences for not only tritrophic
interactions, but that they essentially shape plant-arthro-
pod communities. Questions asked in behavioural ecology
Corresponding author: Dicke, M. (marcel.dicke@wur.nl).
1360-1385/
ß 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2015.03.017
also appeared to apply to plants. Integrating mechanistic
and functional studies meant that the research expanded
from chemicals that mediate arthropod behaviour and
ecological interactions, to plant physiology and phytohor-
monal regulation of the induction of plant volatiles and
subsequently to the transcriptional responses involved.
How did you decide on your current research topics?
Fascination was the main driving force: trying to un-
derstand how nature functions. By answering one ques-
tion, several new questions arose, if not from myself then
from critical peers. In many cases taking a next step
required collaborating with a specialist in a different dis-
cipline. This resulted both in intensifying the research as
well as broadening the scope. Talking to colleagues and
listening to their fascinations resulted in connecting re-
search topics and discovering intriguing aspects of nature.
What would you be if you were not a plant biologist?
I do consider myself an ecologist with a profound inter-
est in plants and their associated community of arthropods
and other organisms. The fact that plants respond to stress
with extensive phenotypic changes and, consequently, are
an active player within their surrounding community
yields intriguing questions. Addressing these requires
the study of animals, plants and microorganisms. Because
of my promotional acitivities for insects, many consider me
an entomologist, but I basically consider myself an ecolo-
gist with a profound interest in the biology of plants,
arthropods and their interactions.
What paper influenced you most?
The seminal paper by Peter Price and colleagues (1980)
on tritrophic interactions, which advocated that in order to
gain a true understanding of plant-insect interactions,
research should extend from bitrophic to tritrophic inter-
actions [1].
How important is science communication?
Scientists make discoveries about the amazing world
around us. They make in-depth analyses, falsifying alter-
native hypotheses and in this way make intriguing discov-
eries. If you are excited about something, you want to share
this with others. Scientific publications inform your direct
colleagues but why not share your excitement with scien-
tists in remote disciplines or with non-scientists? I find
great joy in sharing my fascination with lay people and do
this through public lectures, the organisation of a festival,

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interviews, etc. Seeing non-scientists, high school stu-
dents, and students in primary school become interested
or excited, means that my joy is multiplied. Moreover, the
questions by a new audience support my fascination and
research.
You have been putting forward the idea to put
insects on the menu as an alternative to meat, can
you tell us more about this idea?
This is a topic that is the result of my science communi-
cation activities. It is a topic that I talk about frequently and
I have also become involved in scientific research into this.
Space is lacking to go into details at this occasion, but you
may want to watch my TED talk at http://on.ted.com/j05sk.
What big questions interest you in the long term?
A driving force in the ecology of plant-arthropod com-
munities is how phenotypes change as a result of interac-
tions: herbivory alters a plant’s phenotype, oviposition by
a parasitoid wasp in an herbivore alters the phenotype of
the herbivore with consequences for its interaction with its
food plant, etc. These phenotypic changes can have far-
reaching and long-lasting consequences for plant-arthro-
pod communities. Understanding the mechanisms and
the ecological consequences requires team efforts. In sci-
ence we continue to discover that our view of the world
around us starts with a picture that is too simplistic. A
recent development is that we realize that interactions
between macroorganisms are not interactions between
individuals, but that each macroorganism is a community
in itself. Plants carry endophytes and have an associated
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microbiome and also insects harbour their own micro-
biome. Thus, the investigation of plant-arthropod commu-
nities is not a matter of community ecology involving the
interactions between plants and arthropods as individua-
ls. We will need to develop a new methodology to investi-
gate the interactions between communities. It is a kind of
fractalisation or Droste effect of science.
What are the future challenges in plant science?
Plant science expands from the investigation of a plant
as an individual to a plant in the dynamic interactions
with another species towards the interactions with com-
munities, such as the microbiome and the macrobiome.
Therefore, the major challenge in plant science is to
connect the different approaches within plant science,
from gene to ecosystem, irrespective of the individual
focus. For instance, the dynamics during the development
of a plant affect the interactions of a plant with its
community members and vice versa. Therefore, to under-
stand the mechanisms shaping plant development, one
needs to address the effects of environmental interactions
on plant physiology and phenotype expression. Making
these connections requires linking of sub-disciplines that
usually develop independently. Connecting disciplines is
the future challenge for plant science and for science in
general.
References
1 Price, P.W. et al. (1980) Interactions among three trophic levels:
influence of plant on interactions between insect herbivores and
natural enemies. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 11, 41–65