ON THE EVOLUTION OF PLANT SECONDARY CHEMICAL DIVERSITY

被引:199
作者
JONES, CG [1 ]
FIRN, RD [1 ]
机构
[1] UNIV YORK, DEPT BIOL, YORK YO1 5DD, N YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND
关键词
D O I
10.1098/rstb.1991.0077
中图分类号
Q [生物科学];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
A common-sense evolutionary scenario predicts that well-defended plants should have a moderate diversity of secondary compounds with high biological activity. We contend that plants actually contain a very high diversity of mostly inactive secondary compounds. These patterns result because compounds arising via mutation have an inherently low probability of possessing any biological activity. Only those plants that make a lot of compounds will be well defended because only high diversity confers a reasonable probability of producing active compounds. Inactive compounds are retained, not eliminated, because they increase the probability of producing new active compounds. Plants should therefore have predictable metabolic traits maximizing secondary chemical diversity while minimizing cost. Our hypothesis has important implications to the study of the evolution of plant defence.
引用
收藏
页码:273 / 280
页数:8
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