| Abstract Detail
Tuesday Afternoon Ecology and Adaptation Tewksbury, Joshua J [1]. Why are chilies hot? Integrating selection by microbes, insects and birds on physical and chemical parental care. MANY of the most intricate and fundamental interactions between plants and their herbivores, pathogens, and pollinators are mediated by plant chemistry. Solanaceous plants are well known for the variety and potency of their secondary metabolites, and yet the selective factors responsible for the maintenance of these chemicals, particularly in ripe fruits, have rarely been explored. Here I explore selection by microbial, invertebrate and vertebrate fruit consumers on plant investment in chemical vs. physical protection of seeds, using variation in the wild progenitors of a major spice plant - the chile (genus Capsicum). This research examines the biogeography of a naturally occurring polymorphism for the production of capsaicinoids, the metabolites responsible for the heat or "pungency" in chilies, and uses this polymorphism to explore chemical multi-functionality before, during, and after seed dispersal. With a focus on the tradeoffs in allocation during fruit and seed development, and selection on resulting fruit and seed phenotypes in the field, my lab is hoping to outline broad-sense frugivory, in which the entire fruit phenotype is examined in relation to the full suite of fruit consumers. We use this work to argue that our current classification of metabolic end-products as primary vs. secondary metabolites oversimplifies the complexities inherent in the synthesis and use of plant metabolic products.
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1 - University of Washington, Biology, 106 Kincaid Hall, Box 351800, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA
Keywords:
Capsicum
fruit phenotypes
chemical ecology
secondary metabolite
capsaicin.
Session: SOL05-1
Location: Ballroom AB/Monona Terrace
Date: Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
Time: 1:30 PM
Abstract ID:28 |
