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Chapter 1 Allelochemical Properties or the Raison D'être of Alkaloids

This chapter provides evidence that alkaloids are not waste products or functionless molecules as formerly assumed, but rather defense compounds employed by plants for survival against herbivores and against microorganisms and competing plants. These molecules were developed during evolution through...

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Autor principal: Wink, Michael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Academic Press, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. 1993
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7148816/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0099-9598(08)60134-0
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author Wink, Michael
author_facet Wink, Michael
author_sort Wink, Michael
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description This chapter provides evidence that alkaloids are not waste products or functionless molecules as formerly assumed, but rather defense compounds employed by plants for survival against herbivores and against microorganisms and competing plants. These molecules were developed during evolution through natural selection in that they fit many important molecular targets, often receptors, of cells, which are seen in molecules that mimic endogenous neurotransmitters. The chapter discusses that microorganisms and herbivores rely on plants as a food source. Since both have survived, there must be mechanisms of adaptations toward the defensive chemistry of plants. Many herbivores have evolved strategies to avoid the extremely toxic plants and prefer the less toxic ones. Many herbivores have potent mechanisms to detoxify xenobiotics, which allow the exploitation of at least the less toxic plants. In insects, many specialists evolved that are adapted to the defense chemicals of their host plant, in that they accumulate these compounds and exploit them for their own defense. Alkaloids function as defense molecules against insect predators in the examples studied, and this is further support for the hypothesis that the same compound also serves for chemical defense in the host plant. It needs more experimental data to understand fully the intricate interconnections between plants, their alkaloids, and herbivores, microorganisms, and other plants.
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spelling pubmed-71488162020-04-13 Chapter 1 Allelochemical Properties or the Raison D'être of Alkaloids Wink, Michael The Alkaloids. Chemistry and Physiology Article This chapter provides evidence that alkaloids are not waste products or functionless molecules as formerly assumed, but rather defense compounds employed by plants for survival against herbivores and against microorganisms and competing plants. These molecules were developed during evolution through natural selection in that they fit many important molecular targets, often receptors, of cells, which are seen in molecules that mimic endogenous neurotransmitters. The chapter discusses that microorganisms and herbivores rely on plants as a food source. Since both have survived, there must be mechanisms of adaptations toward the defensive chemistry of plants. Many herbivores have evolved strategies to avoid the extremely toxic plants and prefer the less toxic ones. Many herbivores have potent mechanisms to detoxify xenobiotics, which allow the exploitation of at least the less toxic plants. In insects, many specialists evolved that are adapted to the defense chemicals of their host plant, in that they accumulate these compounds and exploit them for their own defense. Alkaloids function as defense molecules against insect predators in the examples studied, and this is further support for the hypothesis that the same compound also serves for chemical defense in the host plant. It needs more experimental data to understand fully the intricate interconnections between plants, their alkaloids, and herbivores, microorganisms, and other plants. Academic Press, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. 1993 2008-05-30 /pmc/articles/PMC7148816/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0099-9598(08)60134-0 Text en © 1993 Academic Press, Inc. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Article
Wink, Michael
Chapter 1 Allelochemical Properties or the Raison D'être of Alkaloids
title Chapter 1 Allelochemical Properties or the Raison D'être of Alkaloids
title_full Chapter 1 Allelochemical Properties or the Raison D'être of Alkaloids
title_fullStr Chapter 1 Allelochemical Properties or the Raison D'être of Alkaloids
title_full_unstemmed Chapter 1 Allelochemical Properties or the Raison D'être of Alkaloids
title_short Chapter 1 Allelochemical Properties or the Raison D'être of Alkaloids
title_sort chapter 1 allelochemical properties or the raison d'être of alkaloids
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7148816/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0099-9598(08)60134-0
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