Selective Herbivory in Tassel-Eared Squirrels: Role of Monoterpenes in Ponderosa Pines Chosen as Feeding Trees

Farentinos, R. C.; Capretta, Patrick J.; Kepner, Richard E.; Littlefield, V. M.

doi:10.1126/science.213.4513.1273

Cited by 71 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Monoterpenes are widely reported to interfere with the browsing of voles and other mammal herbivores on trees and herbs (e.g. Farentinos et al 1981;Bell and Harestad 1987;Elliot and Loudon, 1987;Wager-Pagé, S. and Mason, R. 1996). However, we saw no bud rejection in our laboratory trial with voles and thus, we assume that the foliar buds are highly preferred by the voles.…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 38%

Bark salicylates and condensed tannins reduce vole browsing amongst cultivated dark-leaved willows (Salix myrsinifolia)

Heiska

Tikkanen

Rousi³

et al. 2007

Chemoecology

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Vole feeding amongst herbal willows that have a high concentration of salicylates in their bark and leaves, and may therefore be cultivated for use as raw material for herbal medicine was tested in the field and in laboratory conditions. Eight clones of dark-leaved willow (Salix myrsinifolia Salisb.) were cultivated for two years with six different methods combining three fertilisation levels (none, low and high), black plastic mulch applied for suppressing weed competition and unmulched control. Samples for the laboratory feeding trial were taken from the unfertilised plants during willow winter dormancy and twigs were fed to 16 voles as a multi-choice experiment. The bark area removed was calculated from image analysis of the material left by the voles. The diameter and the bark thickness of the twigs were measured. Concentrations of salicin, salicortin, HCH-salicortin, picein, triandrin, triandrin derivative, gallocatechin, (+)-catechin, luteolin-7-glucoside, hyperin, total condensed tannins and total nitrogen were measured from the twigs fed to voles in the laboratory. Browsing by a natural population of voles amongst winter-dormant willows was measured in the field. In the laboratory, voles browsed on 80% of the twigs and in the field voles browsed on 33% of the twigs. Vole feeding followed similar patterns in the field and in the laboratory experiment; feeding was clearly higher amongst the plants grown in unmulched control compared to those in plastic mulch. The same clones, 1, 2 and 6 were preferred in both experiments. Voles preferred thin twigs to thick ones. Feeding correlated negatively with concentrations of salicylates and tannins. As vole feeding seems to be highly affected by willow cultivation method and plant genotype, careful selection of cultivated clones and cultivation methods can enhance the reliability of herbal willow cultivation.

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Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 38%

Bark salicylates and condensed tannins reduce vole browsing amongst cultivated dark-leaved willows (Salix myrsinifolia)

Heiska

Tikkanen

Rousi³

et al. 2007

Chemoecology

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“…Cluster analysis can be an effective technique when testing more than one chemical (Wasserman, 1982;Chararas et al, 1982). Techniques developed in vertebrate chemoreception and preference studies may be useful as designs become more complex (Kroeze, 1979;Farentinos et al, 1981, Partridge, 1981Partridge and Maclean, 1981).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assays for Insect Feeding

Lewis¹,

Emden

1986

Springer Series in Experimental Entomology

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“…Cyanogenic glycosides deter voles from feeding on Lotus corniculatus and rabbits from grazing on Trifolium repens (Cooper-Driver and Swain, 1976). The consumption of twigs of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) by tassel-eared squirrels (Sciurus aberti) is inversely correlated with the concentration of alpha-pinene (Farentinos et al, 1981). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of plant secondary compounds on primate feeding behavior

Glander

1982

Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.

289

120

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The recent literature on plant secondary compounds and their influence on primate feeding behavior is reviewed. Many studies of nonhuman primates document the extreme selectivity that primates, particularly herbivorous species, demonstrate in their food choice. Until quite recently investigators interpreted this to mean that herbivorous primates were not food limited. This view has been challenged in the past 10 years by researchers concentrating on the primate-plant interaction. Chemical analyses have demonstrated that plant parts are of varying quality due to differences in nutrient and secondary compound content. The assumption that all leaves (or fruits, flowers, and insects) are potential foods of equal value to the primates eating them is refuted. The observed selectivity and preferences of primates for specific plant or insect species and parts are now viewed as strategies for dealing with the nutrient and secondary compound content variation in these foods.The field of plant-herbivore interaction is a rapidly expanding one that includes the phytochemical relationship between plants and herbivores. It has long been acknowledged that plants and insects profoundly influenced each others' evolutionary courses, but only recently have the biological and ecological roles of plant-produced secondary compounds been recognized.Stahl (1888) was the first to suggest that plants use chemical defenses in addition to the more familiar morphological and mechanical means of protecting themselves.Despite this early observation, plant produced chemicals were considered nothing more than waste products of plant metabolism until Fraenkel (1959) again suggested a defensive function for these compounds. Since then impressive evidence, which demonstrates that plants do use secondary compounds for defensive purposes, has accumulated (Ehrlich and Raven, 1965;Feeny, 1968;Janzen, 1969; Fthoades and Cates, 1976; Rosenthal and Janzen, 1979; and included references). Mothes (1976) went so far to suggest that secondary substances may be primarily defensive in nature and are neither essential nor of any physiological importance to the plants that produce them. He stated that the loss of these chemicals does not reduce the plant's viability. PRIMARY VERSUS SECONDARY COMPOUNDSThe term "secondary compounds" is difficult to define, but Mothes (1980) suggests that its origin may be found in a lecture given by Albrecht Kossel in 1891 and published in Archiu fur Physiologie (1891:181), in which he said:Just as microscope research has succeeded in stripping the cell of its non-essential accessories and in separating its casing and the reserves stored in it from the actual life-carriers, so now chemistry must attempt to separate those compounds which are present, without exception, in a protoplasma capable of developing, and to recognize the substances which are either incidental or not absolutely necessary for life. Finding and describing those atom complexes to which life is bound comprises the most important basis for the investigat...

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Selective Herbivory in Tassel-Eared Squirrels: Role of Monoterpenes in Ponderosa Pines Chosen as Feeding Trees

Cited by 71 publications

References 7 publications

Bark salicylates and condensed tannins reduce vole browsing amongst cultivated dark-leaved willows (Salix myrsinifolia)

Bark salicylates and condensed tannins reduce vole browsing amongst cultivated dark-leaved willows (Salix myrsinifolia)

Assays for Insect Feeding

The impact of plant secondary compounds on primate feeding behavior

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