Etl, Florian and Kaiser, Christian and Reiser, Oliver and Schubert, Mario and Dötterl, Stefan and Schönenberger, Jürg (2022) Evidence for the recruitment of florivorous plant bugs as pollinators. CURRENT BIOLOGY, 32 (21). 4688-4698.e6. ISSN 0960-9822, 1879-0445
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
Angiosperm flowers and their animal visitors have co-evolved for at least 140 Ma, and early flowers were likely used mainly as mating and feeding sites by several groups of insects, including beetles, flies, true bugs, and thrips. Earlier studies suggested that shifts from such neutral or antagonistic relationships toward mutualistic pollination interactions between flowers and insects occurred repeatedly during angiosperm evolution. How-ever, the evolutionary mechanisms and adaptations, which accompanied shifts toward effective pollination, are barely understood, and evidence for such scenarios has been lacking. Here, we show that Syngonium hastiferum (Araceae), a Neotropical representative of an otherwise beetle-pollinated clade, is pollinated by plant bugs (Miridae; Heteroptera), which are florivores of Syngonium schottianum and other Araceae species. We found that S. hastiferum differs in several floral traits from its beetle-pollinated relatives. Scent emission and thermogenesis occur in the morning instead of the evening hours, and its pollen surface is spiny instead of smooth. Furthermore, the floral scent of S. hastiferum includes a previously unknown natural product, (Z)-3-isopropylpent-3-en-1-ol, which we show to have a function in specifically attracting the plant bug pollina-tors. This is the first known case of a specialized plant bug pollination system and provides clear evidence for the hypothesis that the adoption of antagonistic florivores as pollinators can drive flower diversification.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | BASAL ANGIOSPERMS; INSECT POLLINATION; BEETLE POLLINATION; ARACEAE; EVOLUTION; THERMOGENESIS; BIOLOGY; SCENT; DIVERSIFICATION; INFLORESCENCES |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 540 Chemistry & allied sciences |
| Divisions: | Chemistry and Pharmacy > Institut für Organische Chemie > Lehrstuhl Prof. Dr. Oliver Reiser |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 30 Jan 2024 05:32 |
| Last Modified: | 30 Jan 2024 05:32 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/58102 |
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