Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2021 Aug 11;288(1956):20210312. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0312.
Despite the widespread notion that animal-mediated seed dispersal led to the evolution of fruit traits that attract mutualistic frugivores, the dispersal syndrome hypothesis remains controversial, particularly for complex traits such as fruit scent. Here, we test this hypothesis in a community of mutualistic, ecologically important neotropical bats ( spp.) and plants ( spp.) that communicate primarily via chemical signals. We found greater bat consumption is significantly associated with scent chemical diversity and presence of specific compounds, which fit multi-peak selective regime models in . Through behavioural assays, we found prefer certain compounds, particularly 2-heptanol, which evolved as a unique feature of two species highly consumed by these bats. Thus, we demonstrate that volatile compounds emitted by neotropical fruits evolved in tandem with seed dispersal by scent-oriented bats. Specifically, fruit scent chemistry in some species fits adaptive evolutionary scenarios consistent with a dispersal syndrome hypothesis. While other abiotic and biotic processes likely shaped the chemical composition of ripe fruit scent in , our results provide some of the first evidence of the effect of bat frugivory on plant chemical diversity.
尽管普遍认为动物介导的种子传播导致了吸引互惠互利的果实特征的进化，但传播综合征假说仍然存在争议，特别是对于果实气味等复杂特征。在这里，我们在一个互惠互利的生态重要的新热带蝙蝠（ spp.）和植物（ spp.）社区中测试了这一假说，这些蝙蝠和植物主要通过化学信号进行交流。我们发现，蝙蝠的消耗与气味化学多样性和特定化合物的存在显著相关，这些化合物符合多峰选择模型。通过行为分析，我们发现蝙蝠特别喜欢某些化合物，特别是 2-庚醇，这是两种被这些蝙蝠高度消耗的特有化合物。因此，我们证明了由气味导向的蝙蝠传播导致了新热带果实挥发物的协同进化。具体来说，一些 物种释放的果实气味化学物质的进化与传播综合征假说一致。虽然其他非生物和生物过程可能塑造了成熟果实气味的化学组成，但我们的结果提供了一些关于蝙蝠取食对植物化学多样性影响的第一个证据。
