Artículo de revista
Inter-regional variation on leaf surface defenses in native and non-native Centaurea solstitialis plants
Fecha
2015Registro en:
Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 62 (2015) 208-218
doi: 10.1016/j.bse.2015.09.003
Autor
Sotes, Gastón J.
Cavieres, Lohengrin A.
Montesinos, Daniel
Pereira Coutinho, Antonio Xavier
José Pelaez, Walter
Lopes, Susana
Pinho e Melo, Teresa M. V. D.
Institución
Resumen
Plant chemical defenses can be qualitative (toxins) to face generalist herbivores and quantitative (digestibility reducers) to specialists. Trichomes can produce chemicals, but also acts as a quantitative defense and in water loss. The shifting defense hypothesis (SDH) poses that invasive plants reduce the production of qualitative defenses against specialist herbivores because those are frequently absent in invaded regions, while increasing defenses against generalist herbivores. Chemical and physical leaf surface defensive traits could give information about direct plant-herbivore interaction in native and non-native regions. We studied leaf surface morphology and epicuticular chemistry of the invasive C. solstitialis in plants from native and non-native regions. Across regions, the main chemical components were sesquiterpene lactones, similar densities of sessile glandular trichomes and a variable number of large multicellular trichomes. Exotic plants face different sets of challenges in the new regions. In accordance with SDH, plants from non-native regions presented higher total sesquiterpene lactones concentrations (qualitative defense). Trichome density was possibly associated to differences in local climatic conditions. Sesquiterpene lactones are likely to play an important role on the invasion success of Centaurea. Leaf surface components provide meaningful information that should be consider in future studies to unravel the mechanisms involved in plant invasions. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.