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Do Biochemical Exaptations Link Evolution Of Defense And Pollination Systems? Historical Hypotheses And Experimental Tests With Dalechampia Vines, Jerome J. Howard

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Mapping resin secretion and pollination ecology onto the estimated phylogeny of species of the euphorb vine Dalechampia generated two historical hypotheses: resin rewards offered to pollinators by Dalechampia flowers evolved by minor modification of a preexisting, resin-based, floral defense system, and resin defense of leaves in advanced species evolved by modification of the preexisting resin-reward system. From these hypotheses, we derived two predictions: floral reward resins are chemically similar to putative floral defense resins and exhibit antiherbivore activities, and foliar resins are chemically similar to reward resins and also exhibit antiherbivore activities. We tested these predictions by chemical analyses and …