ArticleThe New phytologist2018
Evolution of pyrrolizidine alkaloid biosynthesis in Apocynaceae: revisiting the defence de-escalation hypothesis.
Article in The New phytologist, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Homospermidine synthase evolution and the origin(s) of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in Apocynaceae.American journal of botany · 2025Article
- Defense Molecules of the Invasive Plant SpeciesMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Baiting Insects with Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids (PAs): A Fieldwork-Oriented Review and Guide to PA-Pharmacophagy.Neotropical entomology · 2023Review
- The long road of functional recruitment-The evolution of a gene duplicate to pyrrolizidine alkaloid biosynthesis in the morning glories (Convolvulaceae).Plant direct · 2022Article
- Enabling evolutionary studies at multiple scales in Apocynaceae through Hyb-Seq.Applications in plant sciences · 2020Article
- Article
- Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids: Biosynthesis, Biological Activities and Occurrence in Crop Plants.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Review
- Article
- Toxicity of Milkweed Leaves and Latex: Chromatographic Quantification Versus Biological Activity of Cardenolides in 16 Asclepias Species.Journal of chemical ecology · 2019Article
- HPLC-MS detection of pyrrolizidine alkaloids and theirApplications in plant sciences · 2018Article
- A new spin on chemotaxonomy: Using non-proteogenic amino acids as a test case.Applications in plant sciencesArticle
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Plants produce specialized metabolites for their defence. However, specialist herbivores adapt to these compounds and use them for their own benefit. Plants attacked predominantly by specialists may be under selection to reduce or eliminate production of co-opted chemicals: the defence de-escalation hypothesis. We studied the evolution of pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) in Apocynaceae, larval host plants for PA-adapted butterflies (Danainae, milkweed and clearwing butterflies), to test if the evolutionary pattern is consistent with de-escalation. We used the first PA biosynthesis specific enzyme (homospermidine synthase, HSS) as tool for reconstructing PA evolution. We found hss orthologues in diverse Apocynaceae species, not all of them known to produce PAs. The phylogenetic analysis showed a monophyletic origin of the putative hss sequences early in the evolution of one Apocynaceae lineage (the APSA clade). We found an hss pseudogene in Asclepias syriaca, a species known to produce cardiac glycosides but no PAs, and four losses of an HSS amino acid motif. APSA clade species are significantly more likely to be Danainae larval host plants than expected if all Apocynaceae species were equally likely to be exploited. Our findings are consistent with PA de-escalation as an adaptive response to specialist attack.
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