Floral chemical defences against ants and microorganisms

花的气味被认为是传粉者的引诱剂。然而，除了互惠，拮抗剂强烈影响植物的繁殖成功，并可能代表重要的选择剂的表型花性状的进化。拟议项目的创新目标是了解花卉挥发物对代表潜在花蜜窃贼的蚂蚁和潜在有害微生物的防御作用。除了一些具体的案例研究外，该项目将代表对花香防御功能的首次实验研究。我们最近证明了蚂蚁被特定的花挥发物和来自许多植物物种的整束花所排斥。在某些情况下，蚂蚁可以通过联想学习来克服这种排斥;这个过程将在这里进行更详细的研究，并与传粉者的行为反应进行比较。此外，将测试这些化合物对蚂蚁、蜜蜂和微生物的毒性功能。萜类化合物，特别是单萜和倍半萜，在花香中很常见，被认为是传粉者的吸引信号。在这里，我们假设萜类化合物也发挥了主导作用的防御系统。由于植物物种不同，在他们的曝光不同的拮抗剂，物种之间的比较与变量的生活史，使用一种遗传控制的方法，将有助于增加对进化动力学的理解，有吸引力的和排斥性的信号。

Flower odours are known to serve as pollinator attractants. However, apart from mutualists, antagonists strongly affect the reproductive success of a plant and may represent important selective agents for the evolution of phenotypic floral traits. The innovative goal of the proposed project is to understand the defensive role of floral volatiles against ants that represent potential nectar thieves, and against potentially harmful microorganisms. The project will represent the first experimental investigation of the defensive function of floral scents except for a few specific case studies. We recently demonstrated that ants were repelled by specific floral volatiles and entire bouquets of flowers from a number of plant species. Ants could overcome such repellence in some cases by associative learning; this process will be studied in greater detail here and compared to behavioural responses of pollinators. Moreover, the toxic function of these compounds will be tested for ants, bees and microorganisms. Terpenoids, particularly monoand sesquiterpenes, are common among floral odours and are known as an attractive signal for pollinators. Here we hypothesise that terpenoids also play a dominant role in the defensive system. Since plant species vary in their exposition to different antagonists, comparisons between species with variable life histories, using a phylogenetically controlled approach, will facilitate an increased understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of both, attractive and repellent signals.