| Title: | It's Not Easy Being Blue: Are There Olfactory and Visual Trade-Offs in Plant Signalling? |
| Author(s): | Valenta K; Brown KA; Melin AD; Monckton SK; Styler SA; Jackson DA; Chapman CA; |
| Address: | "Department of Anthropology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Department of Anthropology, Campus Box 1114, One Brooking Drive, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America. Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany. Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada" |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0131725 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1932-6203 (Electronic) 1932-6203 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Understanding the signals used by plants to attract seed disperses is a pervasive quest in evolutionary and sensory biology. Fruit size, colour, and odour variation have long been discussed in the controversial context of dispersal syndromes targeting olfactory-oriented versus visually-oriented foragers. Trade-offs in signal investment could impose important physiological constraints on plants, yet have been largely ignored. Here, we measure the reflectance and volatile organic compounds of a community of Malagasy plants and our results indicate that extant plant signals may represent a trade-off between olfactory and chromatic signals. Blue pigments are the most visually-effective--blue is a colour that is visually salient to all known seed dispersing animals within the study system. Additionally, plants with blue-reflecting fruits are less odiferous than plants that reflect primarily in other regions of the colour spectrum" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Biological Evolution Color Ecosystem *Fruit/anatomy & histology/classification/physiology Madagascar Odorants Photic Stimulation Phylogeny Pigments, Biological/metabolism *Plant Physiological Phenomena Plants/anatomy & histology/classification *Se;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineValenta, Kim Brown, Kevin A Melin, Amanda D Monckton, Spencer K Styler, Sarah A Jackson, Derek A Chapman, Colin A eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2015/06/27 PLoS One. 2015 Jun 26; 10(6):e0131725. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131725. eCollection 2015" |
