Authors: Veijo Jormalainen Sofia A Wikström Tuija Honkanen
Publish Date: 2007/12/21
Volume: 155, Issue: 3, Pages: 559-569
Abstract
Macroalgae have to cope with multiple natural enemies such as herbivores and epibionts As these are harmful for the host the host is expected to show resistance to them Evolution of resistance is complicated by the interactions among the enemies and the genetic correlations among resistances to different enemies Here we explored genetic variation in resistance to epibiosis and herbivory in the brown alga Fucus vesiculosus both under conditions where the enemies coexisted and where they were isolated F vesiculosus showed substantial genetic variation in the resistance to both epibiosis and grazing Grazing pressure on the alga was generally lower in the presence than in the absence of epibiota Furthermore epibiosis modified the susceptibility of different algal genotypes to grazing Resistances to epibiosis and grazing were independent when measured separately for both enemies but positively correlated when both these enemies coexisted Thus when the enemies coexisted the fate of genotypes with respect to these enemies was intertwined Genotypic correlation between phlorotannins brownalgal phenolic secondary metabolites and the amount of epibiota was negative indicating that these compounds contribute to resistance to epibiosis In addition phlorotannins correlated also with the resistance to grazing but this correlation disappeared when grazing occurred in the absence of epibiota This indicates that the patterns of selection for the type of the resistance as well as for the resistance traits vary with the occurrence patterns of the enemiesWe are grateful to Elina Vainio and Nina Heikkilä for help in conducting the experiment and Krista Tulonen for analyzing the phlorotannins The manuscript benefitted from the comments by Prof Tony Underwood and two anonymous referees The Archipelago Research Institute of the University of Turku provided the facilities for the experiment
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