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Hawkmoths evaluate scenting flowers with the tip of their proboscis
Pollination by insects is essential to many ecosystems. Previously, we have shown that floral scent is important to mediate pollen transfer between plants (Kessler et al., 2015). Yet, the mechanisms by which pollinators evaluate volatiles of single flowers remained unclear. Here, Nicotiana attenuata...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4884077/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27146894 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.15039 |
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author | Haverkamp, Alexander Yon, Felipe Keesey, Ian W Mißbach, Christine Koenig, Christopher Hansson, Bill S Baldwin, Ian T Knaden, Markus Kessler, Danny |
author_facet | Haverkamp, Alexander Yon, Felipe Keesey, Ian W Mißbach, Christine Koenig, Christopher Hansson, Bill S Baldwin, Ian T Knaden, Markus Kessler, Danny |
author_sort | Haverkamp, Alexander |
collection | PubMed |
description | Pollination by insects is essential to many ecosystems. Previously, we have shown that floral scent is important to mediate pollen transfer between plants (Kessler et al., 2015). Yet, the mechanisms by which pollinators evaluate volatiles of single flowers remained unclear. Here, Nicotiana attenuata plants, in which floral volatiles have been genetically silenced and its hawkmoth pollinator, Manduca sexta, were used in semi-natural tent and wind-tunnel assays to explore the function of floral scent. We found that floral scent functions to increase the fitness of individual flowers not only by increasing detectability but also by enhancing the pollinator's foraging efforts. Combining proboscis choice tests with neurophysiological, anatomical and molecular analyses we show that this effect is governed by newly discovered olfactory neurons on the tip of the moth's proboscis. With the tip of their tongue, pollinators assess the advertisement of individual flowers, an ability essential for maintaining this important ecosystem service. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.15039.001 |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4884077 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-48840772016-05-31 Hawkmoths evaluate scenting flowers with the tip of their proboscis Haverkamp, Alexander Yon, Felipe Keesey, Ian W Mißbach, Christine Koenig, Christopher Hansson, Bill S Baldwin, Ian T Knaden, Markus Kessler, Danny eLife Neuroscience Pollination by insects is essential to many ecosystems. Previously, we have shown that floral scent is important to mediate pollen transfer between plants (Kessler et al., 2015). Yet, the mechanisms by which pollinators evaluate volatiles of single flowers remained unclear. Here, Nicotiana attenuata plants, in which floral volatiles have been genetically silenced and its hawkmoth pollinator, Manduca sexta, were used in semi-natural tent and wind-tunnel assays to explore the function of floral scent. We found that floral scent functions to increase the fitness of individual flowers not only by increasing detectability but also by enhancing the pollinator's foraging efforts. Combining proboscis choice tests with neurophysiological, anatomical and molecular analyses we show that this effect is governed by newly discovered olfactory neurons on the tip of the moth's proboscis. With the tip of their tongue, pollinators assess the advertisement of individual flowers, an ability essential for maintaining this important ecosystem service. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.15039.001 eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2016-05-05 /pmc/articles/PMC4884077/ /pubmed/27146894 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.15039 Text en © 2016, Haverkamp et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Neuroscience Haverkamp, Alexander Yon, Felipe Keesey, Ian W Mißbach, Christine Koenig, Christopher Hansson, Bill S Baldwin, Ian T Knaden, Markus Kessler, Danny Hawkmoths evaluate scenting flowers with the tip of their proboscis |
title | Hawkmoths evaluate scenting flowers with the tip of their proboscis |
title_full | Hawkmoths evaluate scenting flowers with the tip of their proboscis |
title_fullStr | Hawkmoths evaluate scenting flowers with the tip of their proboscis |
title_full_unstemmed | Hawkmoths evaluate scenting flowers with the tip of their proboscis |
title_short | Hawkmoths evaluate scenting flowers with the tip of their proboscis |
title_sort | hawkmoths evaluate scenting flowers with the tip of their proboscis |
topic | Neuroscience |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4884077/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27146894 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.15039 |
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