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Leong JV, Mezzomo P, Kozel P, Volfová T, de Lima Ferreira P, Seifert CL, Butterill PT, Freiberga I, Michálek J, Matos-Maraví P, Weinhold A, Engström MT, Salminen JP, Segar ST, Sedio BE, Volf M. Effects of individual traits vs. trait syndromes on assemblages of various herbivore guilds associated with central European Salix. Oecologia 2024:10.1007/s00442-024-05569-0. [PMID: 38829402 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-024-05569-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2023] [Accepted: 05/13/2024] [Indexed: 06/05/2024]
Abstract
Plants employ diverse anti-herbivore defences that can covary to form syndromes consisting of multiple traits. Such syndromes are hypothesized to impact herbivores more than individual defences. We studied 16 species of lowland willows occurring in central Europe and explored if their chemical and physical traits form detectable syndromes. We tested for phylogenetic trends in the syndromes and explored whether three herbivore guilds (i.e., generalist leaf-chewers, specialist leaf-chewers, and gallers) are affected more by the detected syndromes or individual traits. The recovered syndromes showed low phylogenetic signal and were mainly defined by investment in concentration, richness, or uniqueness of structurally related phenolic metabolites. Resource acquisition traits or inducible volatile organic compounds exhibited a limited correlation with the syndromes. Individual traits composing the syndromes showed various correlations to the assemblages of herbivores from the three studied guilds. In turn, we found some support for the hypothesis that defence syndromes are composed of traits that provide defence against various herbivores. However, individual traits rather than trait syndromes explained more variation for all studied herbivore assemblages. The detected negative correlations between various phenolics suggest that investment trade-offs may occur primarily among plant metabolites with shared metabolic pathways that may compete for their precursors. Moreover, several traits characterizing the recovered syndromes play additional roles in willows other than defence from herbivory. Taken together, our findings suggest that the detected syndromes did not solely evolve as an anti-herbivore defence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing V Leong
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
- Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
| | - Priscila Mezzomo
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Petr Kozel
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Tereza Volfová
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Paola de Lima Ferreira
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Carlo L Seifert
- Department of Forest Nature Conservation, Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Phillip T Butterill
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Inga Freiberga
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Michálek
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Institute of Microbiology, Centre Algatech Czech Academy of Sciences, Trebon, Czech Republic
| | - Pável Matos-Maraví
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Alexander Weinhold
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Marica T Engström
- Bioanalytical Laboratory, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Juha-Pekka Salminen
- Natural Chemistry Research Group, Department of Chemistry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Simon T Segar
- Agriculture and Environment Department, Harper Adams University, Newport, United Kingdom
| | - Brian E Sedio
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States of America
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ancón, Panama
| | - Martin Volf
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
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2
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Zhang Y, Worthy SJ, Xu S, He Y, Wang X, Song X, Cao M, Yang J. Phytochemical diversity and their adaptations to abiotic and biotic pressures in fine roots across a climatic gradient. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 927:172051. [PMID: 38565347 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2023] [Revised: 03/16/2024] [Accepted: 03/26/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024]
Abstract
Phytochemicals and their ecological significance are long ignored in trait-based ecology. Moreover, the adaptations of phytochemicals produced by fine roots to abiotic and biotic pressures are less understood. Here, we explored the fine roots metabolomes of 315 tree species and their rhizosphere microbiome in southwestern China spanning tropical, subtropical, and subalpine forest ecosystems, to explore phytochemical diversity and endemism patterns of various metabolic pathways and phytochemical-microorganism interactions. We found that subalpine species showed higher phytochemical diversity but lower interspecific variation than tropical species, which favors coping with high abiotic pressures. Tropical species harbored higher interspecific phytochemical variation and phytochemical endemism, which favors greater species coexistence and adaptation to complex biotic pressures. Moreover, there was evidence of widespread chemical niche partitioning of closely related species in all regions, and phytochemicals showed a weak phylogenetic signal, but were regulated by abiotic and biotic pressures. Our findings support the Latitudinal Biotic Interaction Hypothesis, i.e., the intensity of phytochemical-microorganism interactions decreases from tropical to subalpine regions, which promotes greater microbial community turnover and phytochemical niche partitioning of host plants in the tropics than in higher latitude forests. Our study reveals the convergent phytochemical diversity patterns of various pathways and their interactions with microorganism, thus promoting species coexistence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yazhou Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, Yunnan, China.
| | - Samantha J Worthy
- Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
| | - Shijia Xu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, Yunnan, China; School of Ethnic Medicine, Key Lab of Chemistry in Ethnic Medicinal Resources, State Ethnic Affairs Commission & Ministry of Education of China, Yunnan Minzu University, Kunming 650504, Yunnan, China.
| | - Yunyun He
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, Yunnan, China.
| | - Xuezhao Wang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, Yunnan, China.
| | - Xiaoyang Song
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, Yunnan, China.
| | - Min Cao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, Yunnan, China.
| | - Jie Yang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, Yunnan, China.
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3
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Umarani MS, Wang D, O'Dwyer JP, D'Andrea R. A Spatial Signal of Niche Differentiation in Tropical Forests. Am Nat 2024; 203:445-457. [PMID: 38489774 DOI: 10.1086/729218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/17/2024]
Abstract
AbstractExplaining diversity in tropical forests remains a challenge in community ecology. Theory tells us that species differences can stabilize communities by reducing competition, while species similarities can promote diversity by reducing fitness differences and thus prolonging the time to competitive exclusion. Combined, these processes may lead to clustering of species such that species are niche differentiated across clusters and share a niche within each cluster. Here, we characterize this partial niche differentiation in a tropical forest in Panama by measuring spatial clustering of woody plants and relating these clusters to local soil conditions. We find that species were spatially clustered and the clusters were associated with specific concentrations of soil nutrients, reflecting the existence of nutrient niches. Species were almost twice as likely to recruit in their own nutrient niche. A decision tree algorithm showed that local soil conditions correctly predicted the niche of the trees with up to 85% accuracy. Iron, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, and soil pH were among the best predictors of species clusters.
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4
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Mayfield MM, Lau JA, Tobias JA, Ives AR, Strauss SY. What Can Evolutionary History Tell Us about the Functioning of Ecological Communities? The ASN Presidential Debate. Am Nat 2023; 202:587-603. [PMID: 37963115 DOI: 10.1086/726336] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2023]
Abstract
AbstractIn January 2018, Sharon Strauss, then president of the American Society of Naturalists, organized a debate on the following topic: does evolutionary history inform the current functioning of ecological communities? The debaters-Ives, Lau, Mayfield, and Tobias-presented pro and con arguments, caricatured in standard debating format. Numerous examples show that both recent microevolutionary and longer-term macroevolutionary history are important to the ecological functioning of communities. On the other hand, many other examples illustrate that the evolutionary history of communities or community members does not influence ecological function, or at least not very much. This article aims to provide a provocative discussion of the consistent and conflicting patterns that emerge in the study of contemporary and historical evolutionary influences on community function, as well as to identify questions for further study. It is intended as a thought-provoking exercise to explore this complex field, specifically addressing (1) key assumptions and how they can lead us astray and (2) issues that need additional study. The debaters all agree that evolutionary history can inform us about at least some aspects of community function. The underlying question at the root of the debate, however, is how the fields of ecology and evolution can most profitably collaborate to provide a deeper and broader understanding of ecological communities.
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5
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Wang X, He Y, Sedio BE, Jin L, Ge X, Glomglieng S, Cao M, Yang J, Swenson NG, Yang J. Phytochemical diversity impacts herbivory in a tropical rainforest tree community. Ecol Lett 2023; 26:1898-1910. [PMID: 37776563 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2023] [Revised: 07/24/2023] [Accepted: 08/25/2023] [Indexed: 10/02/2023]
Abstract
Metabolomics provides an unprecedented window into diverse plant secondary metabolites that represent a potentially critical niche dimension in tropical forests underlying species coexistence. Here, we used untargeted metabolomics to evaluate chemical composition of 358 tree species and its relationship with phylogeny and variation in light environment, soil nutrients, and insect herbivore leaf damage in a tropical rainforest plot. We report no phylogenetic signal in most compound classes, indicating rapid diversification in tree metabolomes. We found that locally co-occurring species were more chemically dissimilar than random and that local chemical dispersion and metabolite diversity were associated with lower herbivory, especially that of specialist insect herbivores. Our results highlight the role of secondary metabolites in mediating plant-herbivore interactions and their potential to facilitate niche differentiation in a manner that contributes to species coexistence. Furthermore, our findings suggest that specialist herbivore pressure is an important mechanism promoting phytochemical diversity in tropical forests.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuezhao Wang
- Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- School of Ecology and Environment, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming, China
| | - Yunyun He
- Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Brian E Sedio
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, Austin, USA
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ancón, Republic of Panama
| | - Lu Jin
- College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China
- Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xuejun Ge
- Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Suphanee Glomglieng
- Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Min Cao
- Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
| | - Jianhong Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
| | - Nathan G Swenson
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Notre Dame, USA
| | - Jie Yang
- Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
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6
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Walker TWN, Schrodt F, Allard PM, Defossez E, Jassey VEJ, Schuman MC, Alexander JM, Baines O, Baldy V, Bardgett RD, Capdevila P, Coley PD, van Dam NM, David B, Descombes P, Endara MJ, Fernandez C, Forrister D, Gargallo-Garriga A, Glauser G, Marr S, Neumann S, Pellissier L, Peters K, Rasmann S, Roessner U, Salguero-Gómez R, Sardans J, Weckwerth W, Wolfender JL, Peñuelas J. Leaf metabolic traits reveal hidden dimensions of plant form and function. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadi4029. [PMID: 37647404 PMCID: PMC10468135 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi4029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2023] [Accepted: 07/28/2023] [Indexed: 09/01/2023]
Abstract
The metabolome is the biochemical basis of plant form and function, but we know little about its macroecological variation across the plant kingdom. Here, we used the plant functional trait concept to interpret leaf metabolome variation among 457 tropical and 339 temperate plant species. Distilling metabolite chemistry into five metabolic functional traits reveals that plants vary on two major axes of leaf metabolic specialization-a leaf chemical defense spectrum and an expression of leaf longevity. Axes are similar for tropical and temperate species, with many trait combinations being viable. However, metabolic traits vary orthogonally to life-history strategies described by widely used functional traits. The metabolome thus expands the functional trait concept by providing additional axes of metabolic specialization for examining plant form and function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom W. N. Walker
- Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Franziska Schrodt
- School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Pierre-Marie Allard
- Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Emmanuel Defossez
- Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Vincent E. J. Jassey
- Laboratoire d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, 31062 Toulouse, France
| | - Meredith C. Schuman
- Departments of Geography and Chemistry, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Jake M. Alexander
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Oliver Baines
- School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
- Section for Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Virginie Baldy
- Aix Marseille Université, Avignon Université, CNRS, IRD, IMBE, Marseille, France
| | - Richard D. Bardgett
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK
| | - Pol Capdevila
- Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona 08028, Spain
- Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Spain
| | - Phyllis D. Coley
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
| | - Nicole M. van Dam
- Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental crops (IGZ), 14979 Großbeeren, Germany
- Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Bruno David
- Green Mission Pierre Fabre, Institut de Recherche Pierre Fabre, 31562 Toulouse, France
| | - Patrice Descombes
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
- Ecosystems and Landscape Evolution, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
- Musée et Jardins botaniques cantonaux, 1007 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - María-José Endara
- Medio Ambiente y Salud (BIOMAS), Facultad de Ingenierías y Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad de Las Américas, 170124 Quito, Ecuador
| | - Catherine Fernandez
- Aix Marseille Université, Avignon Université, CNRS, IRD, IMBE, Marseille, France
| | - Dale Forrister
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
| | - Albert Gargallo-Garriga
- CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
- CREAF, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, Spain
- Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, 603 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Gaëtan Glauser
- Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Sue Marr
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Bioinformatics and Scientific Data, 06120 Halle, Germany
- Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg, 06108 Halle, Germany
| | - Steffen Neumann
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Bioinformatics and Scientific Data, 06120 Halle, Germany
| | - Loïc Pellissier
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
- Ecosystems and Landscape Evolution, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Kristian Peters
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Bioinformatics and Scientific Data, 06120 Halle, Germany
- Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg, 06108 Halle, Germany
| | - Sergio Rasmann
- Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Ute Roessner
- Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, 2601 Acton, Australia
| | | | - Jordi Sardans
- CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
- CREAF, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Wolfram Weckwerth
- Molecular Systems Biology, Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, 1010 University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Vienna Metabolomics Center, 1010 University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Jean-Luc Wolfender
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Josep Peñuelas
- CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
- CREAF, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, Spain
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Volf M, Leong JV, de Lima Ferreira P, Volfová T, Kozel P, Matos-Maraví P, Hörandl E, Wagner ND, Luntamo N, Salminen JP, Segar ST, Sedio BE. Contrasting levels of β-diversity and underlying phylogenetic trends indicate different paths to chemical diversity in highland and lowland willow species. Ecol Lett 2023; 26:1559-1571. [PMID: 37345539 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14273] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2023] [Revised: 05/16/2023] [Accepted: 05/26/2023] [Indexed: 06/23/2023]
Abstract
Diverse specialised metabolites contributed to the success of vascular plants in colonising most terrestrial habitats. Understanding how distinct aspects of chemical diversity arise through heterogeneous environmental pressures can help us understand the effects of abiotic and biotic stress on plant evolution and community assembly. We examined highland and lowland willow species within a phylogenetic framework to test for trends in their chemical α-diversity (richness) and β-diversity (variation among species sympatric in elevation). We show that differences in chemistry among willows growing at different elevations occur mainly through shifts in chemical β-diversity and due to convergence or divergence among species sharing their elevation level. We also detect contrasting phylogenetic trends in concentration and α-diversity of metabolites in highland and lowland willow species. The resulting elevational patterns contribute to the chemical diversity of willows and suggest that variable selective pressure across ecological gradients may, more generally, underpin complex changes in plant chemistry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Volf
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Jing Vir Leong
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Paola de Lima Ferreira
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Tereza Volfová
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Petr Kozel
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Pável Matos-Maraví
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Elvira Hörandl
- Department of Systematics, Biodiversity and Evolution of Plants (with Herbarium), University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Natascha D Wagner
- Department of Systematics, Biodiversity and Evolution of Plants (with Herbarium), University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Niko Luntamo
- Natural Chemistry Research Group, Department of Chemistry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Juha-Pekka Salminen
- Natural Chemistry Research Group, Department of Chemistry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Simon T Segar
- Agriculture and Environment Department, Harper Adams University, Newport, UK
| | - Brian E Sedio
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ancón, Panama
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8
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Forrister DL, Endara MJ, Soule AJ, Younkin GC, Mills AG, Lokvam J, Dexter KG, Pennington RT, Kidner CA, Nicholls JA, Loiseau O, Kursar TA, Coley PD. Diversity and divergence: evolution of secondary metabolism in the tropical tree genus Inga. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2023; 237:631-642. [PMID: 36263711 DOI: 10.1111/nph.18554] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2022] [Accepted: 09/29/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Plants are widely recognized as chemical factories, with each species producing dozens to hundreds of unique secondary metabolites. These compounds shape the interactions between plants and their natural enemies. We explore the evolutionary patterns and processes by which plants generate chemical diversity, from evolving novel compounds to unique chemical profiles. We characterized the chemical profile of one-third of the species of tropical rainforest trees in the genus Inga (c. 100, Fabaceae) using ultraperformance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolomics and applied phylogenetic comparative methods to understand the mode of chemical evolution. We show: each Inga species contain structurally unrelated compounds and high levels of phytochemical diversity; closely related species have divergent chemical profiles, with individual compounds, compound classes, and chemical profiles showing little-to-no phylogenetic signal; at the evolutionary time scale, a species' chemical profile shows a signature of divergent adaptation. At the ecological time scale, sympatric species were the most divergent, implying it is also advantageous to maintain a unique chemical profile from community members; finally, we integrate these patterns with a model for how chemical diversity evolves. Taken together, these results show that phytochemical diversity and divergence are fundamental to the ecology and evolution of plants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dale L Forrister
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building, 257 S 1400 E, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-0840, USA
| | - María-José Endara
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building, 257 S 1400 E, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-0840, USA
- Grupo de Investigación en Biodiversidad, Medio Ambiente y Salud-BIOMAS - Universidad de las Américas, 170513, Quito, Ecuador
| | - Abrianna J Soule
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building, 257 S 1400 E, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-0840, USA
| | - Gordon C Younkin
- Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
- Plant Biology Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
| | - Anthony G Mills
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building, 257 S 1400 E, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-0840, USA
| | - John Lokvam
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building, 257 S 1400 E, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-0840, USA
| | - Kyle G Dexter
- School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL, UK
| | - R Toby Pennington
- Department of Geography, University of Exeter, Laver Building, North Park Road, Exeter, EX4 4QE, UK
| | - Catherine A Kidner
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, King's Buildings, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JW, UK
- Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, 20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR, UK
| | - James A Nicholls
- The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC), Building 101, Clunies Ross Street, Black Mountain, ACT, 2601, Australia
| | - Oriane Loiseau
- School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL, UK
| | - Thomas A Kursar
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building, 257 S 1400 E, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-0840, USA
| | - Phyllis D Coley
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building, 257 S 1400 E, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-0840, USA
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9
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Quiros-Guerrero LM, Nothias LF, Gaudry A, Marcourt L, Allard PM, Rutz A, David B, Queiroz EF, Wolfender JL. Inventa: A computational tool to discover structural novelty in natural extracts libraries. Front Mol Biosci 2022; 9:1028334. [PMID: 36438653 PMCID: PMC9692083 DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2022.1028334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2022] [Accepted: 10/18/2022] [Indexed: 09/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Collections of natural extracts hold potential for the discovery of novel natural products with original modes of action. The prioritization of extracts from collections remains challenging due to the lack of a workflow that combines multiple-source information to facilitate the data interpretation. Results from different analytical techniques and literature reports need to be organized, processed, and interpreted to enable optimal decision-making for extracts prioritization. Here, we introduce Inventa, a computational tool that highlights the structural novelty potential within extracts, considering untargeted mass spectrometry data, spectral annotation, and literature reports. Based on this information, Inventa calculates multiple scores that inform their structural potential. Thus, Inventa has the potential to accelerate new natural products discovery. Inventa was applied to a set of plants from the Celastraceae family as a proof of concept. The Pristimera indica (Willd.) A.C.Sm roots extract was highlighted as a promising source of potentially novel compounds. Its phytochemical investigation resulted in the isolation and de novo characterization of thirteen new dihydro-β-agarofuran sesquiterpenes, five of them presenting a new 9-oxodihydro-β-agarofuran base scaffold.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luis-Manuel Quiros-Guerrero
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Louis-Félix Nothias
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Arnaud Gaudry
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Laurence Marcourt
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Pierre-Marie Allard
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Adriano Rutz
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Bruno David
- Green Mission Pierre Fabre, Institut de Recherche Pierre Fabre, Toulouse, France
| | - Emerson Ferreira Queiroz
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Jean-Luc Wolfender
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
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10
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Morrison JA, Woldemariam M. Ecological and metabolomic responses of plants to deer exclosure in a suburban forest. Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e9475. [PMCID: PMC9643135 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.9475] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2022] [Revised: 09/28/2022] [Accepted: 10/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Janet A. Morrison
- Department of Biology The College of New Jersey Ewing New Jersey USA
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11
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Windley HR, Starrs D, Stalenberg E, Rothman JM, Ganzhorn JU, Foley WJ. Plant secondary metabolites and primate food choices: A meta-analysis and future directions. Am J Primatol 2022; 84:e23397. [PMID: 35700311 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2021] [Revised: 05/06/2022] [Accepted: 05/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
The role of plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) in shaping the feeding decisions, habitat suitability, and reproductive success of herbivorous mammals has been a major theme in ecology for decades. Although primatologists were among the first to test these ideas, studies of PSMs in the feeding ecology of non-human primates have lagged in recent years, leading to a recent call for primatologists to reconnect with phytochemists to advance our understanding of the primate nutrition. To further this case, we present a formal meta-analysis of diet choice in response to PSMs based on field studies on wild primates. Our analysis of 155 measurements of primate feeding response to PSMs is drawn from 53 studies across 43 primate species which focussed primarily on the effect of three classes of PSMs tannins, phenolics, and alkaloids. We found a small but significant effect of PSMs on the diet choice of wild primates, which was largely driven by the finding that colobine primates showed a moderate aversion to condensed tannins. Conversely, there was no evidence that PSMs had a significant deterrent effect on food choices of non-colobine primates when all were combined into a single group. Furthermore, within the colobine primates, no other PSMs influenced feeding choices and we found no evidence that foregut anatomy significantly affected food choice with respect to PSMs. We suggest that methodological improvements related to experimental approaches and the adoption of new techniques including metabolomics are needed to advance our understanding of primate diet choice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah R Windley
- Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.,Wildlife Ecology Laboratory, Department of Wildlife Biology, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
| | - Danswell Starrs
- Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Eleanor Stalenberg
- Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.,Hawkesbury Institute of the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Jessica M Rothman
- Department of Anthropology, Hunter College of the City University of New York, and New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, New York, USA
| | - Joerg U Ganzhorn
- Animal Ecology and Conservation, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - William J Foley
- Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.,Animal Ecology and Conservation, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
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12
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Sardans J, Gargallo‐Garriga A, Urban O, Klem K, Holub P, Janssens IA, Walker TWN, Pesqueda A, Peñuelas J. Ecometabolomics of plant–herbivore and plant–fungi interactions: a synthesis study. Ecosphere 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3736] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Jordi Sardans
- CSIC Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB Bellaterra Catalonia 08193 Spain
- CREAF Cerdanyola del Valles Catalonia 08193 Spain
- Global Change Research Institute Czech Academy of Sciences Bělidla 986/4a Brno CZ‐60300 Czech Republic
| | - Albert Gargallo‐Garriga
- CSIC Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB Bellaterra Catalonia 08193 Spain
- CREAF Cerdanyola del Valles Catalonia 08193 Spain
- Global Change Research Institute Czech Academy of Sciences Bělidla 986/4a Brno CZ‐60300 Czech Republic
| | - Otmar Urban
- Global Change Research Institute Czech Academy of Sciences Bělidla 986/4a Brno CZ‐60300 Czech Republic
| | - Karel Klem
- Global Change Research Institute Czech Academy of Sciences Bělidla 986/4a Brno CZ‐60300 Czech Republic
| | - Petr Holub
- Global Change Research Institute Czech Academy of Sciences Bělidla 986/4a Brno CZ‐60300 Czech Republic
| | - Ivan A. Janssens
- Department of Biology University of Antwerp Wilrijk 2610 Belgium
| | - Tom W. N. Walker
- Department of Environmental Systems Science Institute of Integrative Biology ETH Zürich Zurich 8092 Switzerland
| | - Argus Pesqueda
- CSIC Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB Bellaterra Catalonia 08193 Spain
- CREAF Cerdanyola del Valles Catalonia 08193 Spain
| | - Josep Peñuelas
- CSIC Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB Bellaterra Catalonia 08193 Spain
- CREAF Cerdanyola del Valles Catalonia 08193 Spain
- Global Change Research Institute Czech Academy of Sciences Bělidla 986/4a Brno CZ‐60300 Czech Republic
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13
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Uckele KA, Jahner JP, Tepe EJ, Richards LA, Dyer LA, Ochsenrider KM, Philbin CS, Kato MJ, Yamaguchi LF, Forister ML, Smilanich AM, Dodson CD, Jeffrey CS, Parchman TL. Phytochemistry reflects different evolutionary history in traditional classes versus specialized structural motifs. Sci Rep 2021; 11:17247. [PMID: 34446754 PMCID: PMC8390663 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-96431-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2021] [Accepted: 07/15/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Foundational hypotheses addressing plant-insect codiversification and plant defense theory typically assume a macroevolutionary pattern whereby closely related plants have similar chemical profiles. However, numerous studies have documented variation in the degree of phytochemical trait lability, raising the possibility that phytochemical evolution is more nuanced than initially assumed. We utilize proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) data, chemical classification, and double digest restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (ddRADseq) to resolve evolutionary relationships and characterize the evolution of secondary chemistry in the Neotropical plant clade Radula (Piper; Piperaceae). Sequencing data substantially improved phylogenetic resolution relative to past studies, and spectroscopic characterization revealed the presence of 35 metabolite classes. Metabolite classes displayed phylogenetic signal, whereas the crude 1H NMR spectra featured little evidence of phylogenetic signal in multivariate tests of chemical resonances. Evolutionary correlations were detected in two pairs of compound classes (flavonoids with chalcones; p-alkenyl phenols with kavalactones), where the gain or loss of a class was dependent on the other's state. Overall, the evolution of secondary chemistry in Radula is characterized by strong phylogenetic signal of traditional compound classes and weak phylogenetic signal of specialized chemical motifs, consistent with both classic evolutionary hypotheses and recent examinations of phytochemical evolution in young lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathryn A Uckele
- Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
- Hitchcock Center for Chemical Ecology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
| | - Joshua P Jahner
- Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA.
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA.
| | - Eric J Tepe
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 45221, USA
| | - Lora A Richards
- Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
- Hitchcock Center for Chemical Ecology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
| | - Lee A Dyer
- Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
- Hitchcock Center for Chemical Ecology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
- Sección Invertebrados, Museo Ecuatoriano de Ciencias Naturales, Quito, Ecuador
| | | | - Casey S Philbin
- Hitchcock Center for Chemical Ecology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
| | - Massuo J Kato
- Department of Fundamental Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Lydia F Yamaguchi
- Department of Fundamental Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Matthew L Forister
- Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
- Hitchcock Center for Chemical Ecology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
| | - Angela M Smilanich
- Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
| | - Craig D Dodson
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
| | - Christopher S Jeffrey
- Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
- Hitchcock Center for Chemical Ecology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
| | - Thomas L Parchman
- Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
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14
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Basset Y, Jorge LR, Butterill PT, Lamarre GPA, Dahl C, Ctvrtecka R, Gripenberg S, Lewis OT, Barrios H, Brown JW, Bunyavejchewin S, Butcher BA, Cognato AI, Davies SJ, Kaman O, Klimes P, Knížek M, Miller SE, Morse GE, Novotny V, Pongpattananurak N, Pramual P, Quicke DLJ, Sakchoowong W, Umari R, Vesterinen EJ, Weiblen G, Wright SJ, Segar ST. Host specificity and interaction networks of insects feeding on seeds and fruits in tropical rainforests. OIKOS 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/oik.08152] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Yves Basset
- ForestGEO, Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst., Apartado Balboa Ancon Panamá
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Inst. of Entomology Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
- Maestria de Entomologia, Univ. de Panamá Panama City Republic of Panama
| | - Leonardo R. Jorge
- Faculty of Science, Univ. of South Bohemia Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Inst. of Entomology Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
| | - Philip T. Butterill
- Faculty of Science, Univ. of South Bohemia Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Inst. of Entomology Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
| | - Greg P. A. Lamarre
- ForestGEO, Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst., Apartado Balboa Ancon Panamá
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Inst. of Entomology Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
| | - Chris Dahl
- Faculty of Science, Univ. of South Bohemia Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Inst. of Entomology Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
| | - Richard Ctvrtecka
- Faculty of Science, Univ. of South Bohemia Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Inst. of Entomology Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
| | - Sofia Gripenberg
- School of Biological Sciences, Univ. of Reading Reading Berkshire UK
| | | | - Héctor Barrios
- Maestria de Entomologia, Univ. de Panamá Panama City Republic of Panama
| | - John W. Brown
- National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Inst. Washington DC USA
| | | | - Buntika A. Butcher
- Dept of Biology, Faculty of Science, Integrative Ecology Laboratory, Chulalongkorn Univ. Phayathai Road Pathumwan Bangkok Thailand
- Center of Excellence in Entomology: Bee Biology, Diversity of Insects and Mites, Chulalongkorn Univ. Pathumwan Bangkok Thailand
| | - Anthony I. Cognato
- Dept of Entomology, Michigan State Univ., Natural Science Bldg. East Lansing MI USA
| | - Stuart J. Davies
- Forest Global Earth Observatory, Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst. and National Museum of Natural History Washington USA
| | - Ondrej Kaman
- Faculty of Science, Univ. of South Bohemia Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Inst. of Entomology Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
| | - Petr Klimes
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Inst. of Entomology Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
| | - Miloš Knížek
- Forestry and Game Management Research Inst. Strnady Jíloviště Czech Republic
| | - Scott E. Miller
- National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Inst. Washington DC USA
| | | | - Vojtech Novotny
- Faculty of Science, Univ. of South Bohemia Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Inst. of Entomology Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
| | | | - Pairot Pramual
- Dept of Biology, Faculty of Science, Mahasarakham Univ., Kantharawichai District Maha Sarakham Thailand
| | - Donald L. J. Quicke
- Dept of Biology, Faculty of Science, Integrative Ecology Laboratory, Chulalongkorn Univ. Phayathai Road Pathumwan Bangkok Thailand
| | - Watana Sakchoowong
- Dept of National Parks, Forest Entomology Group, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Praholyothin Road Chatujak Bangkok Thailand
| | - Ruma Umari
- New Guinea Binatang Center Madang Papua New Guinea
| | - Eero J. Vesterinen
- Dept of Biology and Biodiversity Unit, Univ. of Turku Turku Finland
- Dept of Ecology, Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala Sweden
| | - George Weiblen
- Bell Museum and Dept of Plant and Microbial Biology, Univ. of Minnesota, Gortner Avenue St. Paul MN USA
| | - S. Joseph Wright
- ForestGEO, Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst. Balboa Ancon Panamá
| | - Simon T. Segar
- Agriculture and Environment Dept, Harper Adams Univ. Newport Shropshire UK
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15
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Whitehead SR, Schneider GF, Dybzinski R, Nelson AS, Gelambi M, Jos E, Beckman NG. Fruits, frugivores, and the evolution of phytochemical diversity. OIKOS 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/oik.08332] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Susan R. Whitehead
- Dept of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. Blacksburg VI USA
| | | | - Ray Dybzinski
- School of Environmental Sustainability, Loyola Univ. Chicago IL USA
| | - Annika S. Nelson
- Dept of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. Blacksburg VI USA
| | - Mariana Gelambi
- Dept of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. Blacksburg VI USA
| | - Elsa Jos
- Dept of Biology and Ecology Center, Utah State Univ. Logan UT USA
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16
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Sedio BE, Spasojevic MJ, Myers JA, Wright SJ, Person MD, Chandrasekaran H, Dwenger JH, Prechi ML, López CA, Allen DN, Anderson-Teixeira KJ, Baltzer JL, Bourg NA, Castillo BT, Day NJ, Dewald-Wang E, Dick CW, James TY, Kueneman JG, LaManna J, Lutz JA, McGregor IR, McMahon SM, Parker GG, Parker JD, Vandermeer JH. Chemical Similarity of Co-occurring Trees Decreases With Precipitation and Temperature in North American Forests. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.679638] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Plant diversity varies immensely over large-scale gradients in temperature, precipitation, and seasonality at global and regional scales. This relationship may be driven in part by climatic variation in the relative importance of abiotic and biotic interactions to the diversity and composition of plant communities. In particular, biotic interactions may become stronger and more host specific with increasing precipitation and temperature, resulting in greater plant species richness in wetter and warmer environments. This hypothesis predicts that the many defensive compounds found in plants’ metabolomes should increase in richness and decrease in interspecific similarity with precipitation, temperature, and plant diversity. To test this prediction, we compared patterns of chemical and morphological trait diversity of 140 woody plant species among seven temperate forests in North America representing 16.2°C variation in mean annual temperature (MAT), 2,115 mm variation in mean annual precipitation (MAP), and from 10 to 68 co-occurring species. We used untargeted metabolomics methods based on data generated with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to identify, classify, and compare 13,480 unique foliar metabolites and to quantify the metabolomic similarity of species in each community with respect to the whole metabolome and each of five broad classes of metabolites. In addition, we compiled morphological trait data from existing databases and field surveys for three commonly measured traits (specific leaf area [SLA], wood density, and seed mass) for comparison with foliar metabolomes. We found that chemical defense strategies and growth and allocation strategies reflected by these traits largely represented orthogonal axes of variation. In addition, functional dispersion of SLA increased with MAP, whereas functional richness of wood density and seed mass increased with MAT. In contrast, chemical similarity of co-occurring species decreased with both MAT and MAP, and metabolite richness increased with MAT. Variation in metabolite richness among communities was positively correlated with species richness, but variation in mean chemical similarity was not. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that plant metabolomes play a more important role in community assembly in wetter and warmer climates, even at temperate latitudes, and suggest that metabolomic traits can provide unique insight to studies of trait-based community assembly.
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17
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Sherry TW. Sensitivity of Tropical Insectivorous Birds to the Anthropocene: A Review of Multiple Mechanisms and Conservation Implications. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.662873] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Epigraph: “The house is burning. We do not need a thermometer. We need a fire hose.” (P. 102, Janzen and Hallwachs, 2019). Insectivorous birds are declining widely, and for diverse reasons. Tropical insectivorous birds, more than 60% of all tropical birds, are particularly sensitive to human disturbances including habitat loss and fragmentation, intensive agriculture and pesticide use, and climate change; and the mechanisms are incompletely understood. This review addresses multiple, complementary and sometimes synergistic explanations for tropical insectivore declines, by categorizing explanations into ultimate vs. proximate, and direct versus indirect. Ultimate explanations are diverse human Anthropocene activities and the evolutionary history of these birds. This evolutionary history, synthesized by the Biotic Challenge Hypothesis (BCH), explains tropical insectivorous birds' vulnerabilities to many proximate threats as a function of both these birds' evolutionary feeding specialization and poor dispersal capacity. These traits were favored evolutionarily by both the diversity of insectivorous clades competing intensely for prey and co-evolution with arthropods over long evolutionary time periods. More proximate, ecological threats include bottom-up forces like declining insect populations, top-down forces like meso-predator increases, plus the Anthropocene activities underlying these factors, especially habitat loss and fragmentation, agricultural intensification, and climate change. All these conditions peak in the lowland, mainland Neotropics, where insectivorous bird declines have been repeatedly documented, but also occur in other tropical locales and continents. This multiplicity of interacting evolutionary and ecological factors informs conservation implications and recommendations for tropical insectivorous birds: (1) Why they are so sensitive to global change phenomena is no longer enigmatic, (2) distinguishing ultimate versus proximate stressors matters, (3) evolutionary life-histories predispose these birds to be particularly sensitive to the Anthropocene, (4) tropical regions and continents vary with respect to these birds' ecological sensitivity, (5) biodiversity concepts need stronger incorporation of species' evolutionary histories, (6) protecting these birds will require more, larger reserves for multiple reasons, and (7) these birds have greater value than generally recognized.
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18
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Metabolome-Wide, Phylogenetically Controlled Comparison Indicates Higher Phenolic Diversity in Tropical Tree Species. PLANTS 2021; 10:plants10030554. [PMID: 33809437 PMCID: PMC7998528 DOI: 10.3390/plants10030554] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2021] [Revised: 03/13/2021] [Accepted: 03/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Tropical plants are expected to have a higher variety of defensive traits, such as a more diverse array of secondary metabolic compounds in response to greater pressures of antagonistic interactions, than their temperate counterparts. We test this hypothesis using advanced metabolomics linked to a novel stoichiometric compound classification to analyze the complete foliar metabolomes of four tropical and four temperate tree species, which were selected so that each subset contained the same amount of phylogenetic diversity and evenness. We then built Bayesian phylogenetic multilevel models to test for tropical–temperate differences in metabolite diversity for the entire metabolome and for four major families of secondary compounds. We found strong evidence supporting that the leaves of tropical tree species have a higher phenolic diversity. The functionally closer group of polyphenolics also showed moderate evidence of higher diversity in tropical species, but there were no differences either for the entire metabolome or for the other major families of compounds analyzed. This supports the interpretation that this tropical–temperate contrast must be related to the functional role of phenolics and polyphenolics.
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19
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Song X, Lim JY, Yang J, Luskin MS. When do Janzen-Connell effects matter? A phylogenetic meta-analysis of conspecific negative distance and density dependence experiments. Ecol Lett 2020; 24:608-620. [PMID: 33382527 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13665] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2020] [Revised: 08/18/2020] [Accepted: 11/25/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
The Janzen-Connell (J-C) hypothesis suggests that specialised natural enemies cause distance- or density-dependent mortality among host plants and is regarded as an important mechanism for species coexistence. However, there remains debate about whether this phenomenon is widespread and how variation is structured across taxa and life stages. We performed the largest meta-analysis of experimental studies conducted under natural settings to date. We found little evidence of distance-dependent or density-dependent mortality when grouping all types of manipulations. Our analysis also reveals very large variation in response among species, with 38.5% of species even showing positive responses to manipulations. However, we found a strong signal of distance-dependent mortality among seedlings but not seed experiments, which we attribute to (a) seedlings sharing susceptible tissues with adults (leaves, wood, roots), (b) seedling enemies having worse dispersal than seed enemies and (c) seedlings having fewer physical and chemical defences than seeds. Both density- and distance-dependent mortality showed large variation within genera and families, suggesting that J-C effects are not strongly phylogenetically conserved. There were no clear trends with latitude, rainfall or study duration. We conclude that J-C effects may not be as pervasive as widely thought. Understanding the variation in J-C effects provides opportunities for new discoveries that will refine our understanding of J-C effects and its role in species coexistence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoyang Song
- Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan, 666303, China.,Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China
| | - Jun Ying Lim
- School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
| | - Jie Yang
- Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan, 666303, China.,Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China
| | - Matthew Scott Luskin
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld., 4072, Australia
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20
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Wang H, Zhou W, Li Z, Niklas KJ, Sun S. Plant volatiles mediate evolutionary interactions between plants and tephritid flies and are evolutionarily more labile than non-volatile defenses. J Anim Ecol 2020; 90:846-858. [PMID: 33340098 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13414] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2020] [Accepted: 11/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Studies show that plant defenses influence the host-use of herbivores and tend to be evolutionarily more labile than herbivore traits (e.g. feeding preferences). However, all previous studies have focused exclusively on non-volatile plant defenses thereby overlooking the roles of plant volatiles. We hypothesized that volatiles are equally important determinants of herbivore host-use and are evolutionarily more labile than herbivore traits. To test these hypotheses, the following experiments were conducted. We identified the volatiles and non-volatiles of 17 Asteraceae species and measured their relative contents. We also used a highly resolved bipartite trophic network of the 17 host species and 20 herbivorous (pre-dispersal seed predator) tephritid fly species to determine the evolutionary interactions between plants and herbivores. The chemical data showed that interspecific similarity in volatiles-but not non-volatiles and phylogenetic distance-significantly accounted for the herbivore community across the plant species; this implies that plant volatiles-but not non-volatile compounds and species identity-dictate plant-tephritid fly interactions. Moreover, we observed phylogenetic signal for non-volatiles but not for volatiles; therefore closely related herbivores do not necessarily use closely related host species with similar non-volatiles, but do tend to attack plants producing similar volatiles. Thus, plant volatiles are evolutionarily more labile than non-volatiles and herbivore traits associate with host use. These results show that the interactions between plants and herbivores are evolutionary asymmetric, shed light on the role of plant volatiles in plant-herbivore interactions, and highlight the need to include data for both volatiles and non-volatiles when investigating plant-animal interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hua Wang
- Department of Ecology, School of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
| | - Wenlong Zhou
- Department of Ecology, School of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
| | - Zhao Li
- Department of Ecology, School of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
| | - Karl J Niklas
- Department of Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
| | - Shucun Sun
- Department of Ecology, School of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.,Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China
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21
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Sedio BE, Devaney JL, Pullen J, Parker GG, Wright SJ, Parker JD. Chemical novelty facilitates herbivore resistance and biological invasions in some introduced plant species. Ecol Evol 2020; 10:8770-8792. [PMID: 32884656 PMCID: PMC7452787 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.6575] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2020] [Revised: 06/11/2020] [Accepted: 06/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Ecological release from herbivory due to chemical novelty is commonly predicted to facilitate biological invasions by plants, but has not been tested on a community scale. We used metabolomics based on mass spectrometry molecular networks to assess the novelty of foliar secondary chemistry of 15 invasive plant species compared to 46 native species at a site in eastern North America. Locally, invasive species were more chemically distinctive than natives. Among the 15 invasive species, the more chemically distinct were less preferred by insect herbivores and less browsed by deer. Finally, an assessment of invasion frequency in 2,505 forest plots in the Atlantic coastal plain revealed that, regionally, invasive species that were less preferred by insect herbivores, less browsed by white-tailed deer, and chemically distinct relative to the native plant community occurred more frequently in survey plots. Our results suggest that chemically mediated release from herbivores contributes to many successful invasions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian E. Sedio
- Department of Integrative BiologyUniversity of Texas at AustinAustinTXUSA
- Smithsonian Tropical Research InstituteAncónRepublic of Panama
- Center for Biodiversity and Drug DiscoveryInstituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología‐AIPAncónRepublic of Panama
| | | | - Jamie Pullen
- Smithsonian Environmental Research CenterEdgewaterMDUSA
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22
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García‐Robledo C, Kuprewicz EK, Baer CS, Clifton E, Hernández GG, Wagner DL. The Erwin equation of biodiversity: From little steps to quantum leaps in the discovery of tropical insect diversity. Biotropica 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/btp.12811] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Carlos García‐Robledo
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Connecticut Storrs CT USA
| | - Erin K. Kuprewicz
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Connecticut Storrs CT USA
| | - Christina S. Baer
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Connecticut Storrs CT USA
| | - Elizabeth Clifton
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Connecticut Storrs CT USA
| | - Georgia G. Hernández
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Connecticut Storrs CT USA
| | - David L. Wagner
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Connecticut Storrs CT USA
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23
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Christian N, Sedio BE, Florez-Buitrago X, Ramírez-Camejo LA, Rojas EI, Mejía LC, Palmedo S, Rose A, Schroeder JW, Herre EA. Host affinity of endophytic fungi and the potential for reciprocal interactions involving host secondary chemistry. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 2020; 107:219-228. [PMID: 32072625 DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.1436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2019] [Accepted: 11/23/2019] [Indexed: 05/20/2023]
Abstract
PREMISE Interactions between fungal endophytes and their host plants present useful systems for identifying important factors affecting assembly of host-associated microbiomes. Here we investigated the role of secondary chemistry in mediating host affinity of asymptomatic foliar endophytic fungi using Psychotria spp. and Theobroma cacao (cacao) as hosts. METHODS First, we surveyed endophytic communities in Psychotria species in a natural common garden using culture-based methods. Then we compared differences in endophytic community composition with differences in foliar secondary chemistry in the same host species, determined by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Finally, we tested how inoculation with live and heat-killed endophytes affected the cacao chemical profile. RESULTS Despite sharing a common environment and source pool for endophyte spores, different Psychotria host species harbored strikingly different endophytic communities that reflected intrinsic differences in their leaf chemical profiles. In T. cacao, inoculation with live and heat-killed endophytes produced distinct cacao chemical profiles not found in uninoculated plants or pure fungal cultures, suggesting that endophytes, like pathogens, induce changes in secondary chemical profiles of their host plant. CONCLUSIONS Collectively our results suggest at least two potential processes: (1) Plant secondary chemistry influences assembly and composition of fungal endophytic communities, and (2) host colonization by endophytes subsequently induces changes in the host chemical landscape. We propose a series of testable predictions based on the possibility that reciprocal chemical interactions are a general property of plant-endophyte interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie Christian
- Department of Plant Biology, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois, 505 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL, 61801, USA
- Department of Biology, University of Louisville, 139 Life Sciences Bldg., Louisville, KY, 40208, USA
| | - Brian E Sedio
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Unit 9100 Box 0948, DPO AA 34002-9998, USA
- Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología, Apartado 0843-01103, Ciudad del Saber, Ancón, Republic of Panama
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, 2415 Speedway #C0930, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
| | | | - Luis A Ramírez-Camejo
- Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología, Apartado 0843-01103, Ciudad del Saber, Ancón, Republic of Panama
- Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University, 915 W. State St., West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA
| | - Enith I Rojas
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Unit 9100 Box 0948, DPO AA 34002-9998, USA
| | - Luis C Mejía
- Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología, Apartado 0843-01103, Ciudad del Saber, Ancón, Republic of Panama
| | - Sage Palmedo
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, 106A Guyot Ln., Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - Autumn Rose
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, 106A Guyot Ln., Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - John W Schroeder
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Unit 9100 Box 0948, DPO AA 34002-9998, USA
- Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California Santa-Barbara, Noble Hall 2116, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA
| | - Edward Allen Herre
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Unit 9100 Box 0948, DPO AA 34002-9998, USA
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Baskett CA, Schroeder L, Weber MG, Schemske DW. Multiple metrics of latitudinal patterns in insect pollination and herbivory for a tropical‐temperate congener pair. ECOL MONOGR 2020. [DOI: 10.1002/ecm.1397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Carina A. Baskett
- Department of Plant Biology Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Program Michigan State University East Lansing Michigan 48824 USA
| | - Lucy Schroeder
- Department of Plant Biology Michigan State University East Lansing Michigan 48824 USA
| | - Marjorie G. Weber
- Department of Plant Biology Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Program Michigan State University East Lansing Michigan 48824 USA
| | - Douglas W. Schemske
- Department of Plant Biology Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Program Michigan State University East Lansing Michigan 48824 USA
- W.K. Kellogg Biological Station Michigan State University Hickory Corners Michigan 49060 USA
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25
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Wetzel WC, Whitehead SR. The many dimensions of phytochemical diversity: linking theory to practice. Ecol Lett 2019; 23:16-32. [PMID: 31724320 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13422] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2019] [Accepted: 10/17/2019] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
Research on the ecological and evolutionary roles of phytochemicals has recently progressed from studying single compounds to examining chemical diversity itself. A key conceptual advance enabling this progression is the use of species diversity metrics for quantifying phytochemical diversity. In this perspective, we extend the theory developed for species diversity to further our understanding of what exactly phytochemical diversity is and how its many dimensions impact ecological and evolutionary processes. First, we discuss the major dimensions of phytochemical diversity - richness, evenness, functional diversity, and alpha, gamma and beta diversity. We describe their potential independent roles in biotic interactions and the practical challenges associated with their analysis. Second, we re-analyse the published and unpublished datasets to reveal that the phytochemical diversity experienced by an organism (or observed by a researcher) depends strongly on the scale of the interaction and the total amount of phytochemicals involved. We argue that we must account for these frames of reference to meaningfully understand diversity. Moving from a general notion of phytochemical diversity as a single measure to a precise definition of its multidimensional and multiscale nature yields overlooked testable predictions that will facilitate novel insights about the evolutionary ecology of plant biotic interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- William C Wetzel
- Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.,Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA
| | - Susan R Whitehead
- Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA
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26
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Sedio BE, Durant Archibold A, Rojas Echeverri JC, Debyser C, Boya P CA, Wright SJ. A comparison of inducible, ontogenetic, and interspecific sources of variation in the foliar metabolome in tropical trees. PeerJ 2019; 7:e7536. [PMID: 31579568 PMCID: PMC6756142 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.7536] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2019] [Accepted: 07/23/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Plant interactions with other organisms are mediated by chemistry, yet chemistry varies among conspecific and within individual plants. The foliar metabolome—the suite of small-molecule metabolites found in the leaf—changes during leaf ontogeny and is influenced by the signaling molecule jasmonic acid. Species differences in secondary metabolites are thought to play an important ecological role by limiting the host ranges of herbivores and pathogens, and hence facilitating competitive coexistence among plant species in species-rich plant communities such as tropical forests. Yet it remains unclear how inducible and ontogenetic variation compare with interspecific variation, particularly in tropical trees. Here, we take advantage of novel methods to assemble mass spectra of all compounds in leaf extracts into molecular networks that quantify their chemical structural similarity in order to compare inducible and ontogenetic chemical variation to among-species variation in species-rich tropical tree genera. We ask (i) whether young and mature leaves differ chemically, (ii) whether jasmonic acid-inducible chemical variation differs between young and mature leaves, and (iii) whether interspecific exceeds intraspecific chemical variation for four species from four hyperdiverse tropical tree genera. We observed significant effects of the jasmonic acid treatment for three of eight combinations of species and ontogenetic stage evaluated. Three of the four species also exhibited large metabolomic differences with leaf ontogenetic stage. The profound effect of leaf ontogenetic stage on the foliar metabolome suggests a qualitative turnover in secondary chemistry with leaf ontogeny. We also quantified foliar metabolomes for 45 congeners of the four focal species. Chemical similarity was much greater within than between species for all four genera, even when within-species comparisons included leaves that differed in age and jasmonic acid treatment. Despite ontogenetic and inducible variation within species, chemical differences among congeneric species may be sufficient to partition niche space with respect to chemical defense.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian E Sedio
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama.,Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología-AIP, Ciudad del Saber, Republic of Panama.,Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States of America
| | - Armando Durant Archibold
- Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología-AIP, Ciudad del Saber, Republic of Panama
| | - Juan Camilo Rojas Echeverri
- Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología-AIP, Ciudad del Saber, Republic of Panama
| | - Chloé Debyser
- Department of Biology, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Cristopher A Boya P
- Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología-AIP, Ciudad del Saber, Republic of Panama.,Department of Biotechnology, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, India
| | - S Joseph Wright
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama
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27
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Nitrogen-fixing and non-fixing trees differ in leaf chemistry and defence but not herbivory in a lowland Costa Rican rain forest. JOURNAL OF TROPICAL ECOLOGY 2019. [DOI: 10.1017/s0266467419000233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
AbstractNitrogen-fixing plants provide critical nitrogen inputs that support the high productivity of tropical forests, but our understanding of the ecology of nitrogen fixers – and especially their interactions with herbivores – remains incomplete. Herbivores may interact differently with nitrogen fixers vs. non-fixers due to differences in leaf nitrogen content and herbivore defence strategies. To examine these potential differences, our study compared leaf carbon, nitrogen, toughness, chemical defence and herbivory for four nitrogen-fixing tree species (Inga oerstediana, Inga sapindoides, Inga thibaudiana and Pentaclethra macroloba) and three non-fixing species (Anaxagorea crassipetala, Casearia arborea and Dipteryx panamensis) in a lowland tropical rain forest. Leaf chemical defence, not nutritional content, was the primary driver of herbivore damage among our species. Even though nitrogen fixers exhibited 21.1% higher leaf nitrogen content, 20.1% lower C:N ratios and 15.4% lower leaf toughness than non-fixers, we found no differences in herbivory or chemical defence between these two plant groups. Our results do not support the common hypotheses that nitrogen fixers experience preferential herbivory or that they produce more nitrogen-rich defensive compounds than non-fixers. Rather, these findings suggest strong species-specific differences in plant–herbivore relationships among both nitrogen-fixing and non-fixing tropical trees.
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28
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Sedio BE. Recent advances in understanding the role of secondary metabolites in species-rich multitrophic networks. CURRENT OPINION IN INSECT SCIENCE 2019; 32:124-130. [PMID: 31113624 DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2019.01.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2018] [Revised: 01/12/2019] [Accepted: 01/16/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Understanding coexistence in species-rich communities remains a primary challenge of ecology. Interactions mediated through multitrophic networks are thought to play an important role in sustaining species coexistence in the face of competition for resources. The identity of trophic partners and the intensity with which they interact are often mediated by diverse secondary metabolites. Recent innovations in organic-molecule bioinformatics and multivariate statistical analysis are rapidly advancing our understanding of metabolites and the multitrophic interactions they mediate. Here, I examine recent advances in the study of chemical ecology in species-rich multitrophic communities, with an emphasis on plant-herbivore networks, and explore the potential for chemically mediated interactions to shape community composition and sustain species diversity in ecological communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian E Sedio
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancón, Panama; Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología, Apartado 0843-01103, Ciudad del Saber, Ancón, Panama. https://twitter.com/@stri_panama
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