Integrating phenological, chemical and biotic defences in ant-plant protection mutualisms: a case study of two myrmecophyte lineages |
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Authors: | Laurent Amsellem Doyle B McKey |
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Institution: | (1) Laboratoire de Génétique et Evolution des Populations Végétales, Batiment SN2, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille 1, F-59655 Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex, France;(2) Equipe Coévolution, Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, UMR 5175 CNRS, 1919 route de Mende, F-34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France |
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Abstract: | Summary. We examined the role of plant phenology in the evolution of anti-herbivore defence in symbiotic ant-plant protection mutualisms.
Phenology of the host-plant affects traits of its herbivores, including size, growth rate, development time, and gregariousness.
Traits of herbivores in turn determine what traits ants must have to protect their host. Diversity in plant phenological traits
could thus help explain the great ecological diversity of coevolved ant-plant mutualisms. We explored the postulated causal
chain linking phenology of the plant, herbivore adaptations to phenology, and ant adaptations for protection, by comparing
two myrmecophytes presenting strong contrasts in phenology. In Leonardoxa africana, a slow-growing understory tree, growth at each twig terminal is intermittent, the rapid flushing of a single leaf-bearing
internode being followed by a pause of several months. In contrast, axes of Barteria nigritana, a tree of open areas, grow continuously. Analysis of the phenology (kinetics of expansion) and chemistry of leaf development
(contents of chlorophylls, lignin, and nitrogen during leaf growth) showed that these two species exhibit strongly contrasting
strategies. Leonardoxa exhibited a delayed greening strategy, with rapid expansion of leaves during a short period, followed by synthesis of chlorophylls
and lignins only after final leaf size has been reached. In contrast, leaves of Barteria expanded more slowly, with chlorophylls and lignin gradually synthesised throughout development. Differences in the phenology
of leaf development are reflected in differences in the duration of larval development, and thereby in size, of the principal
lepidopteran herbivores observed on these two plants. This difference may in turn have led to different requirements for effective
defence by ants. The strategy of phenological defence may thus affect the evolution of biotic defence. |
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Keywords: | Myrmecophytes Coevolution Delayed greening Leaf growth Chemical defences Indirect defence Leonardoxa Fabaceae Barteria Passifloraceae |
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