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1: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 Mar 27;98(7):3909-14. Epub 2001 Mar 20.Click here to read Click here to read Links

Feeding specialization and host-derived chemical defense in Chrysomeline leaf beetles did not lead to an evolutionary dead end.

Termonia A, Hsiao TH, Pasteels JM, Milinkovitch MC.

Unit of Evolutionary Genetics, Free University of Brussels (ULB), cp 300, Institute of Molecular Biology and Medicine, rue Jeener and Brachet 12, B6041 Gosselies, Belgium.

Combination of molecular phylogenetic analyses of Chrysomelina beetles and chemical data of their defensive secretions indicate that two lineages independently developed, from an ancestral autogenous metabolism, an energetically efficient strategy that made the insect tightly dependent on the chemistry of the host plant. However, a lineage (the interrupta group) escaped this subordination through the development of a yet more derived mixed metabolism potentially compatible with a large number of new host-plant associations. Hence, these analyses on leaf beetles document a mechanism that can explain why high levels of specialization do not necessarily lead to "evolutionary dead ends."

PMID: 11259651 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PMCID: PMC31152