Chemical Phenotype Matching in Wild Parsnips and Parsnip Webworms: Causes and Consequences

“野生防风草和防风草webworms的化学表型匹配：causesand consequences”野生防风草被少数昆虫物种攻击，因为它们产生称为呋喃香豆素的毒素。 欧防风webworms可以饲料的植物，因为他们可以代谢这些毒素。 在不同的种群中，植物的化学防御模式与网虫的解毒酶模式非常相似。 生物化学谱的密切对应表明植物和昆虫共同进化，或相互作为选择剂。该项目旨在了解化学特征如何匹配。 许多因素，如替代寄主植物的存在下，死亡率由于捕食者，和移动的webworms种群之间，可能会影响程度的化学配置文件匹配。 这些因素和其他因素将在一系列自然发生的人口在中西部地区，以及在人工构建的“不匹配”的人口，以确定生态影响的速率和程度的化学配置文件匹配。.在分子水平上对植物中合成防御酶和蜘蛛体内分解毒素的酶进行表征，以确定这种化学图谱匹配的遗传机制，共同进化导致的化学图谱匹配对于理解植物-昆虫相互作用具有重要意义。 这项研究将是潜在的价值，在开发应用程序，旨在作物抗虫育种，在预测昆虫害虫进化抗性合成毒素，如杀虫剂的速度，并在建设保护计划，考虑到濒危植物和昆虫物种之间的相互作用。

"Chemical phenotype matching in wild parsnips and parsnip webworms: causesand consequences"Wild parsnips are attacked by few insect species because they produce toxins called furanocoumarins. Parsnip webworms can feed on the plant because they can metabolize these toxins. In different populations, the chemical defense profile of the plants closely resembles the detoxification enzyme profile of the webworms. The close correspondence of biochemical profiles indicates that plants and insects coevolve, or act as reciprocal selective agents on each other. This project is aimed at understanding how chemical profiles come to match. Many factors, such as the presence of alternate hostplants, mortality due to predators, and movement of webworms between populations, may influence the degree of chemical profile matching. These factors and others will be examined in a series of naturally occuring populations in the midwest, as well as in artificially constructed "mismatched" populations, to determine ecological influences on the rate and extent of chemical profile matching. . The enzymes that synthesize the defenses in the plants and that dismantle the toxins in the webworm will be characterized at the molecular level, to determine the genetic mechanisms underlying this chemical profile matching.Chemical profile matching resulting from coevolution is of importance in understanding plant-insect interactions in general. This study will be potentially of value in developing applications aimed at breeding for insect resistance in crop plants, at predicting the rate at which insect pests evolve resistance to synthetic toxins such as insecticides, and at constructing conservation plans that take into account interactions between endangered plant and insect species.