TY - JOUR
T1 - Toxicity of angular furanocoumarins to swallowtail butterflies
T2 - Escalation in a coevolutionary arms race?
AU - Berenbaum, May
AU - Feeny, Paul
PY - 1981
Y1 - 1981
N2 - Xanthotoxin, a linear furanocoumarin occurring in many plants of the family Umbelliferae, is not appreciably toxic to the umbellifer-feeding larvae of Papilio polyxenes (Lepidoptera; Papilionidae), whereas angelicin, an angular furanocoumarin found only in a few relatively advanced tribes of the Umbelliferae, reduces growth rate and fecundity. The biosynthetic pathway leading to angular attachment of the furan ring may thus have been a response within the Umbelliferae to selective pressures exerted by specialized herbivores that had adapted to feeding on linear furanocoumarins.
AB - Xanthotoxin, a linear furanocoumarin occurring in many plants of the family Umbelliferae, is not appreciably toxic to the umbellifer-feeding larvae of Papilio polyxenes (Lepidoptera; Papilionidae), whereas angelicin, an angular furanocoumarin found only in a few relatively advanced tribes of the Umbelliferae, reduces growth rate and fecundity. The biosynthetic pathway leading to angular attachment of the furan ring may thus have been a response within the Umbelliferae to selective pressures exerted by specialized herbivores that had adapted to feeding on linear furanocoumarins.
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U2 - 10.1126/science.212.4497.927
DO - 10.1126/science.212.4497.927
M3 - Article
C2 - 17830190
AN - SCOPUS:0019421453
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 212
SP - 927
EP - 929
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 4497
ER -