Transgenerational induction of defences in animals and plants

Predators are potent agents of natural selection in biological communites. Experimental studies have shown that the introduction of predators can cause rapid evolution of defensive morphologies and behaviours in prey and chemical defences in plants. Such defences may be constitutively expressed (phe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature (London) Vol. 401; no. 6748; pp. 60 - 63
Main Authors Agrawal, A.A, Laforsch, C, Tollrian, R
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Nature Publishing 02.09.1999
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Daphnia cucullata
defense mechanisms
Flowers & plants
Freshwater
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
generations
induction
maternal effect
Predation
predator-prey relationships
Predators
Raphanus raphanistrum
Predator prey relation
Insecta
Cladocera
Induced resistance
Crustacea
Cruciferae
Dicotyledones
Intergeneration relation
Angiospermae
Pieridae
Daphnia
Maternal effect
Branchiopoda
Cyclomorphosis
Artogeia rapae
Allelopathy
Phenotypic plasticity
Progeny
Phenotype
Animal plant relation
Arthropoda
Lepidoptera
Defense mechanism
Spermatophyta
Invertebrata
Raphanus raphanistrum
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Summary:Predators are potent agents of natural selection in biological communites. Experimental studies have shown that the introduction of predators can cause rapid evolution of defensive morphologies and behaviours in prey and chemical defences in plants. Such defences may be constitutively expressed (phenotypically fixed) or induced when predators initially attack. Here we show that non-lethal exposure of an animal to carnivores, and a plant to a herbivore, not only induces a defence, but causes the attacked organisms to produce offspring that are better defended than offspring from unthreatened parents. This transgenerational effect, referred to as a maternally induced defence, is in contrast to the more common defences induced in single individuals within a generation. Transgenerational induction of defences is a new level of phenotypic plasticity across generations that may be an important component of predator-prey interactions.
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ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/43425