Alkaloid defenses of co-mimics in a putative Mullerian mimetic radiation

作者：Stuckert Adam M M^*; Saporito Ralph A; Venegas Pablo J; Summers Kyle

来源：BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2014, 14(1): 76.

DOI：10.1186/1471-2148-14-76

• Alkaloids
• Aposematism
• Dendrobatids
• Mullerian mimicry
• Polytypism
• Ranitomeya imitator

Background: Polytypism in aposematic species is unlikely according to theory, but commonly seen in nature. Ranitomeya imitator is a poison frog species exhibiting polytypic mimicry of three congeneric model species (R. fantastica, R. summersi, and two morphs of R. variabilis) across four allopatric populations (a %26quot;mimetic radiation%26quot;). In order to investigate chemical defenses in this system, a key prediction of Mullerian mimicry, we analyzed the alkaloids of both models and mimics from four allopatric populations. %26lt;br%26gt;Results: In this study we demonstrate distinct differences in alkaloid profiles between co-mimetic species within allopatric populations. We further demonstrate that R. imitator has a greater number of distinct alkaloid types than the model species and more total alkaloids in all but one population. %26lt;br%26gt;Conclusions: Given that R. imitator is the more abundant species in these populations, R. imitator is likely driving the majority of predator-learned avoidance in these complexes. The success of Ranitomeya imitator as a putative advergent mimic may be a direct result of differences in alkaloid sequestration. Furthermore, we propose that automimicry within co-mimetic species is an important avenue of research.

• 出版日期2014-4-4