Signal and reward in wild fleshy fruits: Does fruit scent predict nutrient content?
Signal and reward in wild fleshy fruits: Does fruit scent predict nutrient content?
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DOI：
10.1002/ece3.5573
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发表时间：
2019-08-22
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
Ayasse, Manfred
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Nevo, Omer;Razafimandimby, Diary;Ayasse, Manfred
有肉质果实的植物物种为动物提供糖、蛋白质和脂肪等奖励，以它们的水果为食，并分散它们的种子。它们还进化出视觉和嗅觉信号，表明它们的存在和成熟度。在某些系统中，水果颜色是营养含量的可靠视觉信号。然而，尽管许多用作嗅觉信号的挥发性化学物质来自动物寻找的营养物质，但水果气味是否编码了有关野生水果中营养成分的信息仍是未知的。我们研究了马达加斯加28种果树的嗅觉信号和营养奖励之间的关系。我们用气相色谱和质谱法测定了水果香味中四种化学成分的相对含量，以及果肉中糖和蛋白质的相对含量。我们发现，蛋白质水平与水果气味中化学相关挥发性化合物含量的增加无关。相反，糖分含量与水果香味的化学成分密切相关。据我们所知，这是第一次探索水果化学信号和营养奖励之间的联系的研究。我们的结果表明，在糖的情况下，水果气味是营养含量的预测，因此是一个诚实的信号。
Plant species with fleshy fruits offer animals rewards such as sugar, protein, and fat, to feed on their fruits and disperse their seeds. They have also evolved visual and olfactory signals indicating their presence and ripeness. In some systems, fruit color serves as a reliable visual signal of nutrient content. Yet even though many volatile chemicals used as olfactory signals derive from nutrients animals seek, it is still unknown whether fruit scent encodes information regarding nutrient content in wild fruits. We examine the relationship between olfactory signals and nutrient rewards in 28 fruiting plant species in Madagascar. We measured the relative amounts of four chemical classes in fruit scent using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, as well as the relative amounts of sugar and protein in fruit pulp. We found that protein levels are not associated with elevated amounts of chemically related volatile compounds in fruit scent. In contrast, sugar content is strongly associated with the chemical composition of fruit scent. To our knowledge, this is the first research to explore the connection between fruit chemical signals and nutrient rewards. Our results imply that in the case of sugar, fruit scent is predictive of nutrient content and hence an honest signal.