| Title: | Defensive functions and potential ecological conflicts of floral stickiness |
| Author(s): | Chauta A; Kumar A; Mejia J; Stashenko EE; Kessler A; |
| Address: | "Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. Center for Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry, CROM-MASS, CIBIMOL-CENIVAM, Industrial University of Santander, Carrera 27, Calle 9, Edificio 45, 680002, Bucaramanga, Colombia. Centre for Aromatic Plants (CAP), Industrial Estate, Selaqui, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, 248 011, India. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. ak357@cornell.edu" |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-022-23261-2 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2045-2322 (Electronic) 2045-2322 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Stickiness of vegetative tissues has evolved multiple times in different plant families but is rare and understudied in flowers. While stickiness in general is thought to function primarily as a defense against herbivores, it may compromise mutualistic interactions (such as those with pollinators) in reproductive tissues. Here, we test the hypothesis that stickiness on flower petals of the High-Andean plant, Bejaria resinosa (Ericaceae), functions as a defense against florivores. We address ecological consequences and discuss potential trade-offs associated with a repellant trait expressed in flowers that mediate mutualistic interactions. In surveys and manipulative experiments, we assess florivory and resulting fitness effects on plants with sticky and non-sticky flowers in different native populations of B. resinosa in Colombia. In addition, we analyze the volatile and non-volatile components in sticky and non-sticky flower morphs to understand the chemical information context within which stickiness is expressed. We demonstrate that fruit set is strongly affected by floral stickiness but also varies with population. While identifying floral stickiness as a major defensive function, our data also suggest that the context-dependency of chemical defense functionality likely arises from differential availability of primary pollinators and potential trade-offs between chemical defense with different modes of action" |
| Keywords: | *Flowers *Herbivory Symbiosis Plants Colombia; |
| Notes: | "MedlineChauta, Alexander Kumar, Arvind Mejia, Jesica Stashenko, Elena E Kessler, Andre eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2022/11/19 Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 18; 12(1):19848. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-23261-2" |
