Selection mosaic exerted by specialist and generalist herbivores on chemical and physical defense of Datura stramonium.

ABSTRACT: Selection exerted by herbivores is a major force driving the evolution of plant defensive characters such as leaf trichomes or secondary metabolites. However, plant defense expression is highly variable among populations and identifying the sources of this variation remains a major challenge. Plant populations are often distributed across broad geographic ranges and are exposed to different herbivore communities, ranging from generalists (that feed on diverse plant species) to specialists (that feed on a restricted group of plants). We studied eight populations of the plant Datura stramonium usually eaten by specialist or generalist herbivores, in order to examine whether the pattern of phenotypic selection on secondary compounds (atropine and scopolamine) and a physical defense (trichome

SUBMITTER: Castillo G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4106780 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature