Transgenerational induction of defences in animals and plants

被引:627
作者
Agrawal, AA [1 ]
Laforsch, C
Tollrian, R
机构
[1] Univ Calif Davis, Dept Entomol, Davis, CA 95616 USA
[2] Univ Calif Davis, Ctr Populat Biol, Davis, CA 95616 USA
[3] Univ Munich, Inst Zool, D-80333 Munich, Germany
关键词
D O I
10.1038/43425
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 [理学]; 0710 [生物学]; 09 [农学];
摘要
Predators are potent agents of natural selection in biological communities. Experimental studies have shown that the introduction of predators can cause rapid evolution of defensive morphologies and behaviours in prey(1-5) and chemical defences in plants(6,7). Such defences may be constitutively expressed (phenotypically fixed) or induced when predators initially attacks(8-10). Here we show that non-lethal exposure of an animal to carnivores, and a plant to a herbivore, not only induces a defence, but causes the attacked organisms to produce offspring that are better defended than offspring from unthreatened parents. This transgenerational effect, referred to as a maternally induced defence, is in contrast to the more common defences induced in single individuals within a generation. Transgenerational induction of defences is a new level of phenotypic plasticity across generations that may be an important component of predator-prey interactions.
引用
收藏
页码:60 / 63
页数:4
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