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A shared mechanism of defense against predators and parasites: chitin regulation and its implications for life-history theory

Defenses against predators and parasites offer excellent illustrations of adaptive phenotypic plasticity. Despite vast knowledge about such induced defenses, they have been studied largely in isolation, which is surprising, given that predation and parasitism are ubiquitous and act simultaneously in...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Beckerman, Andrew P, de Roij, Job, Dennis, Stuart R, Little, Tom J
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3892373/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24455141
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.766
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author Beckerman, Andrew P
de Roij, Job
Dennis, Stuart R
Little, Tom J
author_facet Beckerman, Andrew P
de Roij, Job
Dennis, Stuart R
Little, Tom J
author_sort Beckerman, Andrew P
collection PubMed
description Defenses against predators and parasites offer excellent illustrations of adaptive phenotypic plasticity. Despite vast knowledge about such induced defenses, they have been studied largely in isolation, which is surprising, given that predation and parasitism are ubiquitous and act simultaneously in the wild. This raises the possibility that victims must trade-off responses to predation versus parasitism. Here, we propose that arthropod responses to predators and parasites will commonly be based on the endocrine regulation of chitin synthesis and degradation. The proposal is compelling because many inducible defenses are centered on temporal or spatial modifications of chitin-rich structures. Moreover, we show how the chitin synthesis pathway ends in a split to carapace or gut chitin, and how this form of molecular regulation can be incorporated into theory on life-history trade-offs, specifically the Y-model. Our hypothesis thus spans several biological scales to address advice from Stearns that “Endocrine mechanisms may prove to be only the tip of an iceberg of physiological mechanisms that modulate the expression of genetic covariance”.
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spelling pubmed-38923732014-01-21 A shared mechanism of defense against predators and parasites: chitin regulation and its implications for life-history theory Beckerman, Andrew P de Roij, Job Dennis, Stuart R Little, Tom J Ecol Evol Hypotheses Defenses against predators and parasites offer excellent illustrations of adaptive phenotypic plasticity. Despite vast knowledge about such induced defenses, they have been studied largely in isolation, which is surprising, given that predation and parasitism are ubiquitous and act simultaneously in the wild. This raises the possibility that victims must trade-off responses to predation versus parasitism. Here, we propose that arthropod responses to predators and parasites will commonly be based on the endocrine regulation of chitin synthesis and degradation. The proposal is compelling because many inducible defenses are centered on temporal or spatial modifications of chitin-rich structures. Moreover, we show how the chitin synthesis pathway ends in a split to carapace or gut chitin, and how this form of molecular regulation can be incorporated into theory on life-history trade-offs, specifically the Y-model. Our hypothesis thus spans several biological scales to address advice from Stearns that “Endocrine mechanisms may prove to be only the tip of an iceberg of physiological mechanisms that modulate the expression of genetic covariance”. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2013-12 2013-11-20 /pmc/articles/PMC3892373/ /pubmed/24455141 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.766 Text en © 2013 Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Re-use of this article is permitted in accordance with the Creative Commons Deed, Attribution 2.5, which does not permit commercial exploitation.
spellingShingle Hypotheses
Beckerman, Andrew P
de Roij, Job
Dennis, Stuart R
Little, Tom J
A shared mechanism of defense against predators and parasites: chitin regulation and its implications for life-history theory
title A shared mechanism of defense against predators and parasites: chitin regulation and its implications for life-history theory
title_full A shared mechanism of defense against predators and parasites: chitin regulation and its implications for life-history theory
title_fullStr A shared mechanism of defense against predators and parasites: chitin regulation and its implications for life-history theory
title_full_unstemmed A shared mechanism of defense against predators and parasites: chitin regulation and its implications for life-history theory
title_short A shared mechanism of defense against predators and parasites: chitin regulation and its implications for life-history theory
title_sort shared mechanism of defense against predators and parasites: chitin regulation and its implications for life-history theory
topic Hypotheses
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3892373/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24455141
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.766
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