Do grasses fight back? The case for antiherbivore defences

Vicari, Mark; Bazely, Dawn R.

doi:10.1016/0169-5347(93)90026-l

Cited by 149 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Silica is the main anti-herbivore defence in grasses and is more important than chemical defences in deterring herbivory on grasses [27,28]. Fertilization can slightly decrease the silica content in F. rubra, but this decrease in foliar silica content has no significant effect on larval performance in C. pamphilus [29].…”

Section: (B) Host Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transgenerational acclimatization in an herbivore–host plant relationship

Cahenzli

Erhardt

2013

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Twenty years ago, scientists began to recognize that parental effects are one of the most important influences on progeny phenotype. Consequently, it was postulated that herbivorous insects could produce progeny that are acclimatized to the host plant experienced by the parents to improve progeny fitness, because host plants vary greatly in quality and quantity, and can thus provide important cues about the resources encountered by the next generation. However, despite the possible profound implications for our understanding of host-use evolution of herbivores, host-race formation and sympatric speciation, intense research has been unable to verify transgenerational acclimatization in herbivore-host plant relationships. We reared Coenonympha pamphilus larvae in the parental generation (P) on high-and low-quality host plants, and reared the offspring (F 1 ) of both treatments again on high-and low-quality plants. We tested not only for maternal effects, as most previous studies, but also for paternal effects. Our results show that parents experiencing predictive cues on their host plant can indeed adjust progeny's phenotype to anticipated host plant quality. Maternal effects affected female and male offspring, whereas paternal effects affected only male progeny. We here verify, for the first time to our knowledge, the long postulated transgenerational acclimatization in an herbivore-host plant interaction.

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Section: (B) Host Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transgenerational acclimatization in an herbivore–host plant relationship

Cahenzli

Erhardt

2013

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…Although coevolution between grasses and grazers has received a great deal of attention (Stebbins 1981;McNaughton 1984;Jernvall & Fortelius 2002;Prasad et al 2005), the ecological mechanisms by which grasses defend themselves against herbivores remain poorly understood (O'Reagain & Mentis 1989;Vicari & Bazely 1993). The silica content of grasses can be considerably higher than in many other plants and has been proposed as an antiherbivore defence strategy (McNaughton et al 1985;Gali-Muhtasib et al 1992;Vicari & Bazely 1993). Silica is deposited as phytoliths in leaves.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental demonstration of the antiherbivore effects of silica in grasses: impacts on foliage digestibility and vole growth rates

2006

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The impact of plant-based factors on the population dynamics of mammalian herbivores has been the subject of much debate in ecology, but the role of antiherbivore defences in grasses has received relatively little attention. Silica has been proposed as the primary defence in grasses and is thought to lead to increased abrasiveness of foliage so deterring feeding, as well as reducing foliage digestibility and herbivore performance. However, at present there is little direct experimental evidence to support these ideas. In this study, we tested the effects of manipulating silica levels on the abrasiveness of grasses and on the feeding preference and growth performance of field voles, specialist grass-feeding herbivores. Elevated silica levels did increase the abrasiveness of grasses and deterred feeding by voles. We also demonstrated, for the first time, that silica reduced the growth rates of both juvenile and mature female voles by reducing the nitrogen they could absorb from the foliage. Furthermore, we found that vole feeding leads to increased levels of silica in leaves, suggesting a dynamic feedback between grasses and their herbivores. We propose that silica induction due to vole grazing reduces vole performance and hence could contribute to cyclic dynamics in vole populations.

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“…Not only do mammalian grazers avoid phytolith-rich foods when they can (8), but grasses, for example, generate more phytoliths when their blades are eaten by grazers (9). The assumption is that mammals (and other animals) avoid these foods to prevent excessive wear of the feeding apparatus.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

New model to explain tooth wear with implications for microwear formation and diet reconstruction

Xia

Zheng

Huang

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

105

114

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Paleoanthropologists and vertebrate paleontologists have for decades debated the etiology of tooth wear and its implications for understanding the diets of human ancestors and other extinct mammals. The debate has recently taken a twist, calling into question the efficacy of dental microwear to reveal diet. Some argue that endogenous abrasives in plants (opal phytoliths) are too soft to abrade enamel, and that tooth wear is caused principally by exogenous quartz grit on food. If so, variation in microwear among fossil species may relate more to habitat than diet. This has important implications for paleobiologists because microwear is a common proxy for diets of fossil species. Here we reexamine the notion that particles softer than enamel (e.g., silica phytoliths) do not wear teeth. We scored human enamel using a microfabrication instrument fitted with soft particles (aluminum and brass spheres) and an atomic force microscope (AFM) fitted with silica particles under fixed normal loads, sliding speeds, and spans. Resulting damage was measured by AFM, and morphology and composition of debris were determined by scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Enamel chips removed from the surface demonstrate that softer particles produce wear under conditions mimicking chewing. Previous models posited that such particles rub enamel and create ridges alongside indentations without tissue removal. We propose that although these models hold for deformable metal surfaces, enamel works differently. Hydroxyapatite crystallites are "glued" together by proteins, and tissue removal requires only that contact pressure be sufficient to break the bonds holding enamel together. dental microwear | diet reconstruction | tooth wear

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Do grasses fight back? The case for antiherbivore defences

Cited by 149 publications

References 37 publications

Transgenerational acclimatization in an herbivore–host plant relationship

Transgenerational acclimatization in an herbivore–host plant relationship

Experimental demonstration of the antiherbivore effects of silica in grasses: impacts on foliage digestibility and vole growth rates

New model to explain tooth wear with implications for microwear formation and diet reconstruction

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