Original title: Tasty rewards for ants: differences in elaiosome and seed metabolite profiles are consistent across species and reflect taxonomic relatedness
Authors: KONEČNÁ, Marie
Document type: Rigorous theses
Year: 2023
Language: eng
Abstract: The reward for ants in myrmecochory is a nutrient-rich appendage, the elaiosome. This study evaluates the metabolite composition of five groups (i.e. amino acids, fatty acids, organic acids, polyols, and sugars) in elaiosomes compared to the respective seeds. Two plant species from each of the four families (Amaryllidaceae, Boraginaceae, Papaveraceae, and Poaceae) were examined, with each species represented by three populations. The hierarchically designed data enabled the decomposition of variability in metabolite composition at three levels: family, species, and population. Another aspect studied was the consistency of elaiosome metabolite composition across unrelated species from monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous families with different elaiosome origins, which may reflect the convergent evolution of elaiosomes.
Keywords: Ant-plant mutualism; Convergent evolution; Myrmecochory; Seed dispersal; Variation partitioning
Citation: KONEČNÁ, Marie. Tasty rewards for ants: differences in elaiosome and seed metabolite profiles are consistent across species and reflect taxonomic relatedness. České Budějovice, 2023. rigorózní práce (RNDr.). JIHOČESKÁ UNIVERZITA V ČESKÝCH BUDĚJOVICÍCH. Přírodovědecká fakulta

Institution: University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (web)
Document availability information: Fulltext is available in the Digital Repository of University of South Bohemia.
Original record: http://www.jcu.cz/vskp/73083

Permalink: http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-533599


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Universities and colleges > Public universities > University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice
Academic theses (ETDs) > Rigorous theses