Sequestration and biosynthesis of cyanogenic glucosides in passion vine butterflies and consequences for the diversification of their host plants.

ABSTRACT: The colorful heliconiine butterflies are distasteful to predators due to their content of defense compounds called cyanogenic glucosides (CNglcs), which they biosynthesize from aliphatic amino acids. Heliconiine larvae feed exclusively on Passiflora plants where ~30 kinds of CNglcs have been reported. Among them, some CNglcs derived from cyclopentenyl glycine can be sequestered by some Heliconius species. In order to understand the evolution of biosynthesis and sequestration of CNglcs in these butterflies and its consequences for their arms race with Passiflora plants, we analyzed the CNglc distribution in selected heliconiine and Passiflora species. Sequestration of cyclopentenyl CNglcs is not an exclusive trait of Heliconius, since these compounds were

SUBMITTER: Pinheiro de Castro EC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6509390 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature