Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Community Ecology Unit, via Belsoggiorno 22, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland.
Toxins (Basel). 2012 Apr;4(4):228-43. doi: 10.3390/toxins4040228. Epub 2012 Apr 10.
Plant secondary metabolites play a key role in plant-insect interactions, whether constitutive or induced, C- or N-based. Anti-herbivore defences against insects can act as repellents, deterrents, growth inhibitors or cause direct mortality. In turn, insects have evolved a variety of strategies to act against plant toxins, e.g., avoidance, excretion, sequestration and degradation of the toxin, eventually leading to a co-evolutionary arms race between insects and plants and to co-diversification. Anti-herbivore defences also negatively impact mutualistic partners, possibly leading to an ecological cost of toxin production. However, in other cases toxins can also be used by plants involved in mutualistic interactions to exclude inadequate partners and to modify the cost/benefit ratio of mutualism to their advantage. When considering the whole community, toxins have an effect at many trophic levels. Aposematic insects sequester toxins to defend themselves against predators. Depending on the ecological context, toxins can either increase insects' vulnerability to parasitoids and entomopathogens or protect them, eventually leading to self-medication. We conclude that studying the community-level impacts of plant toxins can provide new insights into the synthesis between community and evolutionary ecology.
植物次生代谢物在植物-昆虫相互作用中起着关键作用，无论是组成型的还是诱导型的，C 基的还是 N 基的。抗草食性防御可以作为驱避剂、拒食剂、生长抑制剂或直接导致死亡。反过来，昆虫也进化出了多种策略来对抗植物毒素，例如，回避、排泄、隔离和毒素的降解，最终导致昆虫和植物之间的共同进化军备竞赛和共同多样化。抗草食性防御也会对互惠伙伴产生负面影响，可能导致毒素产生的生态成本。然而，在其他情况下，参与互利共生相互作用的植物也可以利用毒素来排斥不适当的伙伴，并改变互利共生的成本/收益比，使其受益。当考虑整个群落时，毒素在多个营养层都有作用。警戒性昆虫会隔离毒素来保护自己免受捕食者的侵害。根据生态背景的不同，毒素既可以增加昆虫对寄生蜂和昆虫病原体的脆弱性，也可以保护它们，最终导致自我治疗。我们得出结论，研究植物毒素对群落水平的影响可以为群落和进化生态学之间的综合提供新的见解。
