The Diversification of Chemical and Developmental Defenses Against Herbivores Within the Genus Inga

植物和以它们为食的昆虫构成了地球上大部分的生物多样性，它们之间的相互作用在热带森林中极为强烈。食草动物和植物之间的进化相互作用导致了一场“军备竞赛”，在这场竞赛中，植物防御方面的创新受到昆虫的反适应。植物防御如何影响植物的进化和与昆虫的相互作用将在因加（Inga）上进行研究，这是一种分布广泛、种类繁多的豌豆科热带树木。因加有大量的有毒化学防御物质，并通过在叶子上分泌花蜜来吸引防御性蚂蚁。为了了解这些防御策略的成本和收益，并了解它们是如何随着时间的推移而变化的，研究人员将量化巴拿马、厄瓜多尔和秘鲁许多因加物种的防御，并将对DNA进行测序，以创建一个系统发育树。这是第一个研究一系列化学和非化学防御，量化它们的有效性和防御之间的权衡，并测试它们的进化关系的研究。大约50%的处方药仍然来自大自然，所以提高我们对这些化学防御在自然界中的位置和如何起作用的理解是有价值的。植物化学防御的生态信息为巴拿马的一个强调经济发展和保护的药物发现项目提供了信息。拉丁美洲的学生也将参与实地研究，从而促进培训和更好的出国留学机会。本项目所获得的能力建设和科学信息对森林恢复具有重要意义，与保护目标和国际生物多样性计划是一致的。

Plants and the insects that eat them comprise the majority of the earth's biodiversity and their interactions are extremely intense in tropical forests. The evolutionary interactions between herbivores and plants has led to an "arms race" in which innovations in plant defenses are met by counter adaptations in insects. How plant defenses shape plant evolution and interactions with insects will be studied in Inga, a widespread and diverse tropical tree in the pea family. Inga has an arsenal of toxic chemical defenses and also attracts defensive ants by producing nectar on leaves. To understand the costs and benefits of these defense strategies, and to see how they have changed over time, researchers will quantify defenses in many species of Inga from Panama, Ecuador and Peru, and will sequence DNA to create a phylogenetic tree. This is the first study to examine a range of chemical and non-chemical defenses, quantify their effectiveness and tradeoffs between defenses, and test their evolutionary relationships.Approximately 50% of prescription medicines are still derived from nature, so improving our understanding of where and how these chemical defenses work in nature is valuable. The ecological information about plant chemical defenses has informed a drug-discovery project in Panama that emphasized economic development and conservation. Latin American students will also be involved in the field research, thus facilitating training and better access to study abroad. The capacity-building and scientific information obtained in this project have implications for forest restoration, and are consistent with goals of conservation and international biodiversity programs.