Selective Grazing of Hairless Silene dioica Plants by Land Gastropods

Westerbergh, Anna; Nyberg, Anna Britt

doi:10.2307/3545953

Cited by 38 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Apparently, the main factor influencing food selection in A. lusitanicus is more the presence of physical armour in the plant than its content of chemical defenses. Westerbergh & Nyberg (1995) found that Arion slugs preferred to eat mainly on glabrous plants. However, glabrous plants of the family Poaceae, known to contain silica bodies (Dirzo 1980), are avoided by A. lusitanicus (Briner & Frank 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do slugs cope with toxic alkaloids?

Aguiar

2005

Chemoecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Arion lusitanicus and other slugs are able to feed on a variety of plants, even those containing toxic secondary metabolites, such as alkaloids. Alkaloids, like sparteine, lupanine, quinidine and atropine are avoided in no-choice feeding experiments only when they are present in concentrations above 1 mg/g food pellet. Alkaloids (sparteine, lupanine, cytisine, quinidine, atropine, senecionine, eserine, and harmaline) are toxic to Arion lusitanicus when injected. LD 50 values are 10 to 20 fold higher than in vertebrates indicating that slugs have a high tolerance towards food toxins. The tolerance is higher in young animals than in adult slugs. Injected alkaloids are rapidly detoxified within 72 h. Tolerance and detoxification can be induced by feeding slugs on non-lethal doses of lupin alkaloids. Using isolated microsomal preparations from the digestive gland, active detoxification was observed in vitro. Evidence is presented that cytochrome p450 plays an important role in detoxification of the applied alkaloids. A powerful and inducible detoxification systems appears to be the main mechanism that allows slugs to feed on plants rich in secondary metabolites (when no other food is available), that are usually avoided by other herbivores.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do slugs cope with toxic alkaloids?

Aguiar

2005

Chemoecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Westerbergh and Nyberg (1995) showed that populations of Silene dioica in areas subjected to snail herbivory have densely hairy leaves that protect them from slug feeding compared to hairless (glabrous) forms that are highly susceptible to slugs. These populations harbor the recessive, glabrous allele, but no plants with hairless leaves are seen in these populations.…”

Section: Plant Chemistry and Slug Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Changes in seedling palatability can affect risk of damage by molluscs. For example, slugs and snails are often highly selective among chemical and morphological phenotypes of plants (Jones 1962;Cates 1975;Westerbergh and Nyberg 1995), and as seedlings age, the likelihood of attack often decreases (Bryant and Julkunen-Tiitto 1995;Hanley et al 1995;Fenner et al 1999). Thus, slugs may act as a major selective force favoring greater seedling defense within a lineage, as well as altering interspecific plant abundance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seedling herbivory by slugs in a willow hybrid system: developmental changes in damage, chemical defense, and plant performance

et al. 2001

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We evaluated feeding preference and damage by the slug, Arion subfuscus, on seedlings of two willow species, Salix sericea and S. eriocephala, and their F interspecific hybrids. Trays of seedlings were placed in the field and excised leaves were presented to slugs in choice tests. Slugs preferred feeding on and caused the most damage to S. eriocephala seedlings. S. sericea seedlings were least preferred and least damaged. F hybrid seedlings were intermediate in preference and damage. Slug preference of and damage to these seedlings decreased over time, suggesting developmental changes in resistance. Seedlings were sampled for phenolic glycoside and tannin chemistry weekly to coincide with the field and laboratory experiments. Concentrations of phenolic glycosides and tannins increased linearly with seedling age, coincident with changes in slug preference and damage, indicating a developmental change in defense. Slug deterrence was not detected at low concentrations of salicortin when painted on leaves or discs, but both salicortin and condensed tannins deterred slug feeding at concentrations between 50 and 100 mg/g, levels found in adult willows. Seedling performance was related to damage inflicted by slugs. Due to lower levels of damage when exposed to slugs in the field, S. sericea plants had significantly greater biomass than S. eriocephala plants. Biomass of F hybrids was equal to S. sericea when damaged. However, undamaged S. eriocephala and F hybrid plants had the greatest biomass. Because F hybrid seedlings performed as well as the most fit parent in all cases, slugs could be an important selective factor favoring introgression of defensive traits between these willow species.

show abstract

“…Chemically defended sponges grew at the same rates in both caged and uncaged treatments. Selective predation on undefended species that coexist with defended species has also been reported for plants and lichens (Coley 1983, Westerbergh & Nyberg 1995, Nimis & Skert 2006. This type of predation on undefended species, which allocate more resources to growth, may provide the balance that allows both chemically defended and undefended sponge species to occur on the same reef.…”

Section: Growth and Chemical Defensementioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of a resource trade-off between growth and chemical defenses among Caribbean coral reef sponges

Leong¹,

Pawlik²

2010

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Like all organisms, sponges allocate resources to life functions such as growth and reproduction. Additionally, some sponges are defended by secondary metabolites that deter potential predators. Assuming resources are limiting, species that produce defensive metabolites should allocate fewer resources to growth and reproduction. To test the hypothesis that there is a trade-off between chemical defense and growth, predator exclusion experiments were conducted to compare the growth rates of 7 common Caribbean sponge species with similar branching morphologies: chemically undefended species Callyspongia armigera, Iotrochota birotulata and Niphates erecta, and defended species Amphimedon compressa, Aplysina cauliformis, Aplysina fulva and Ptilocaulis walpersi. Thirty field experiments lasting 124 to 195 d were performed over a 9 yr period on a total of 1158 sponges. A 3-factor ANOVA was used to compare the effects of chemical defense (undefended/ defended), treatment (uncaged/caged) and season (summer/winter). Despite the fact that different sponge species could be allocating resources differently to reproduction, thereby potentially obscuring the interaction between growth and chemical defense, growth in cages was significantly greater for undefended than defended sponges (110.4 versus 65.8% growth yr -1 ). While the growth of chemically defended sponges inside and outside of cages was not different, growth of undefended sponges inside cages was significantly greater than outside cages, confirming that palatable sponge species were grazed by sponge-eating fishes. Growth during winter months was significantly less for both undefended and defended sponges compared to growth during summer months, but again, growth was greater for undefended sponges than for defended sponges. Differences in growth rates demonstrate that sponge species have evolved alternative allocation patterns to cope with resource constraints, as well as predation, and provide evidence that there is a metabolic cost associated with chemical defenses.

show abstract

Selective Grazing of Hairless Silene dioica Plants by Land Gastropods

Cited by 38 publications

References 20 publications

How do slugs cope with toxic alkaloids?

How do slugs cope with toxic alkaloids?

Seedling herbivory by slugs in a willow hybrid system: developmental changes in damage, chemical defense, and plant performance

Evidence of a resource trade-off between growth and chemical defenses among Caribbean coral reef sponges

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About