ArticleJournal of chemical ecology2016
Fruit Odor as A Ripeness Signal for Seed-Dispersing Primates? A Case Study on Four Neotropical Plant Species.
Article in Journal of chemical ecology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sources of variation in plant chemical diversity: Lessons from Malagasy Ficus.American journal of botany · 2025Article
- Effects of temperature gradient on functional fruit traits: an elevation-for-temperature approach.BMC ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Multi-omic applications for understanding and enhancing tropical fruit flavour.Plant molecular biology · 2024Review
- Seed dispersal syndrome predicts ethanol concentration of fruits in a tropical dry forest.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Fruit scent as an honest signal for fruit quality.BMC ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Assessing urinary odours across the oestrous cycle in a mouse model using portable and benchtop gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.Royal Society open science · 2021Article
- Fruit odorants mediate co-specialization in a multispecies plant-animal mutualism.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- The evolution of fruit scent: phylogenetic and developmental constraints.BMC evolutionary biology · 2020Article
- Sweet tooth: Elephants detect fruit sugar levels based on scent alone.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- Human odour thresholds are tuned to atmospheric chemical lifetimes.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Article
- What smells? Developing in-field methods to characterize the chemical composition of wild mammalian scent cues.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- Differences in PpAAT1 Activity in High- and Low-Aroma Peach Varieties AffectPlant physiology · 2020Article
- Signal and reward in wild fleshy fruits: Does fruit scent predict nutrient content?Ecology and evolution · 2019Article
- Fruit scent and observer colour vision shape food-selection strategies in wild capuchin monkeys.Nature communications · 2019Article
- Fruit scent as an evolved signal to primate seed dispersal.Science advances · 2018Article
- The evolution of fruit colour: phylogeny, abiotic factors and the role of mutualists.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Current Challenges in Plant Eco-Metabolomics.International journal of molecular sciences · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
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4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Fleshy fruits contain a myriad of secondary metabolites that may fulfill various non-mutually exclusive ecological functions. Among them are defense against pathogens and herbivores, manipulation of frugivores' gut retention time, or controlling the germination process. In addition, it has been suggested that aroma compounds may be used as fruit-selection cues by frugivores, and that plants may be under selection to provide a reliable signal for ripeness to seed-dispersal vectors through ripe fruit aroma. A previous project demonstrated that fruit odor of two Neotropical primate-dispersed plant species can be used by primates to identify ripe fruits. Here, we provide data supporting the hypothesis that olfactory conspicuousness of ripeness in these two species may be an evolved signal rather than a cue exploited by primates. We analyzed the odors of ripe and unripe fruits of the two species along with odors of two sympatric species whose main dispersal vector is passerine birds. We show that only primate-dispersed species significantly change their odor profiles upon ripening. Thus, odor of bird-dispersed species is not informative regarding their ripeness level and is likely to fulfill other functions. We discuss these data in light of the multiple hypotheses for the presence of fruit secondary metabolites, and we offer a roadmap for future studies to establish the hypothesis that fruit odor is an evolved signal for ripeness.
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