Testing the generalist-specialist dilemma: the role of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in resistance to invertebrate herbivores in Jacobaea species.

ABSTRACT: Plants produce a diversity of secondary metabolites (SMs) to protect them from generalist herbivores. On the other hand, specialist herbivores use SMs for host plant recognition, feeding and oviposition cues, and even sequester SMs for their own defense. Therefore, plants are assumed to face an evolutionary dilemma stemming from the contrasting effects of generalist and specialist herbivores on SMs. To test this hypothesis, bioassays were performed with F2 hybrids from Jacobaea species segregating for their pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), using a specialist flea beetle (Longitarsus jacobaeae) and a generalist slug (Deroceras invadens). Our study demonstrated that while slug feeding damage was negatively correlated with the concentration of total PAs and that of senecionine-like PAs, flea be

SUBMITTER: Wei X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4351440 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature