1. Did a plant-herbivore arms race drive chemical diversity in Euphorbia?
- Author
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Olwen M. Grace, Martinez-Swatson K, Henrik Toft Simonsen, Dan Staerk, Madeleine Ernst, Pieter C. Dorrestein, C.H. Saslis-Lagoudakis, Nina Rønsted, Hassemer G, Silva Rr, van der Hooft Jjj, Luís Adriano Funez, Marnix H. Medema, Paola Lovato, Niclas Nilsson, and Louis-Félix Nothias
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,0303 health sciences ,Herbivore ,Euphorbia ,Ecology ,Arms race ,Defence mechanisms ,Biology ,biology.organism_classification ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,03 medical and health sciences ,Genus ,Chemical diversity ,Adaptation ,human activities ,030304 developmental biology - Abstract
The genus Euphorbia is among the most diverse and species-rich plant genera on Earth, exhibiting a near-cosmopolitan distribution and extraordinary chemical diversity, especially across highly toxic macro-and polycyclic diterpenoids. However, very little is known about drivers and evolutionary origins of chemical diversity within Euphorbia. Here, we investigate 43 Euphorbia species to understand how geographic separation over evolutionary time has impacted chemical differentiation. We show that the structurally highly diverse Euphorbia diterpenoids are significantly reduced in species native to the Americas, compared to the Eurasian and African continents, where the genus originated. The localization of these compounds to young stems and roots suggest ecological relevance in herbivory defense and immunomodulatory defense mechanisms match diterpenoid levels, indicating chemoevolutionary adaptation to reduced herbivory pressure.One Sentence SummaryGlobal chemo-evolutionary adaptation of Euphorbia affected immunomodulatory defense mechanisms.
- Published
- 2018
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