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

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 5079-5093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Érika C. Pinheiro de Castro ◽  
Mika Zagrobelny ◽  
Juan Pablo Zurano ◽  
Márcio Zikan Cardoso ◽  
René Feyereisen ◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Érika C. P. de Castro ◽  
Jamie Musgrove ◽  
Søren Bak ◽  
W. Owen McMillan ◽  
Chris D. Jiggins

AbstractHostplant specialization is a major force driving ecological niche partitioning and diversification in insect herbivores. The cyanogenic defences of Passiflora plants keeps most herbivores at bay, but not larvae of Heliconius butterflies, which can both sequester and biosynthesize cyanogenic compounds. Here, we demonstrate that both Heliconius cydno chioneus, a host plant generalist, and H. melpomene rosina, a specialist, have remarkable plasticity in their chemical defence. When feeding on Passiflora species with cyanogenic compounds they can readily sequester, both species downregulate the biosynthesis of these compounds. In contrast, when fed on Passiflora plants that do not contain cyanogenic glucosides that can be sequestered, both species increase biosynthesis. This biochemical plasticity comes at a significant fitness cost for specialist like H. m. rosina, as growth rates for this species negatively correlate with biosynthesis levels, but not for a generalist like H. c. chioneus. In exchange, H. m rosina has increased performance when sequestration is possible as on its specialised hostplant. In summary, phenotypic plasticity in biochemical responses to different host plants offers these butterflies the ability to widen their range of potential host within the Passiflora genus, while maintaining their chemical defences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Érika C. P. de Castro ◽  
Jamie Musgrove ◽  
Søren Bak ◽  
W. Owen McMillan ◽  
Chris D. Jiggins

Host plant specialization is a major force driving ecological niche partitioning and diversification in insect herbivores. The cyanogenic defences of Passiflora plants keep most herbivores at bay, but not the larvae of Heliconiu s butterflies, which can both sequester and biosynthesize cyanogenic compounds. Here, we demonstrate that both Heliconius cydno chioneus and H. melpomene rosina have remarkable plasticity in their chemical defences. When feeding on Passiflora species with cyanogenic compounds that they can readily sequester, both species downregulate the biosynthesis of these compounds. By contrast, when fed on Passiflora plants that do not contain cyanogenic glucosides that can be sequestered, both species increase biosynthesis. This biochemical plasticity comes at a fitness cost for the more specialist H. m. rosina , as adult size and weight for this species negatively correlate with biosynthesis levels, but not for the more generalist H. c. chioneus . By contrast, H. m rosina has increased performance when sequestration is possible on its specialized host plant. In summary, phenotypic plasticity in biochemical responses to different host plants offers these butterflies the ability to widen their range of potential hosts within the Passiflora genus, while maintaining their chemical defences.


EDIS ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Cuda ◽  
Patricia Prade ◽  
Carey R. Minteer-Killian

In the late 1970s, Brazilian peppertree, Schinus terebinthifolia Raddi (Sapindales: Anacardiaceae), was targeted for classical biological control in Florida because its invasive properties (see Host Plants) are consistent with escape from natural enemies (Williams 1954), and there are no native Schinus spp. in North America. The lack of native close relatives should minimize the risk of damage to non-target plants from introduced biological control agents (Pemberton 2000). [...]


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Purnama Hidayat ◽  
Denny Bintoro ◽  
Lia Nurulalia ◽  
Muhammad Basri

Species identification, host range, and identification key of whiteflies of Bogor and surrounding area. Whitefly (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is a group of insects that are small, white, soft-bodied, and easily found on various agricultural crops. Whitefly is a phytophagous insect; some species are important pests in agricultural crops that can cause direct damage and can become vectors of viral diseases. The last few years the damage caused by whitefly in Indonesia has increased. Unfortunately, information about their species and host plants in Indonesia, including in Bogor, is still limited. Kalshoven, in his book entitled Pest of Crops in Indonesia, published in the 1980s reported that there were 9 species of whitefly in Indonesia. The information on the book should be reconfirmed. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine whitefly species and its host plants in Bogor and its surroundings. Whiteflies is identified based on the ‘puparia’ (the last instar of the nymph) collected from various agricultural plants, ornamental plants, weeds, and forest plants. A total of 35 species of whiteflies were collected from 74 species and 29 families of plants. The collwcted whiteflies consist of four species belong to Subfamily Aleurodicinae and 31 species of Subfamily Aleyrodinae. The most often found whitefly species were Aleurodicus dispersus, A. dugesii, and Bemisia tabaci. A dichotomous identification key of whiteflies was completed based on morphological character of 35 collected species. The number of whitefly species in Bogor and surrounding areas were far exceeded the number of species reported previously by Kalshoven from all regions in Indonesia.


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