Ritmejeryte, Edita, Boughton, Berin A., Bayly, Michael J., and Miller, Rebecca E. (2023) Diverse organ-specific localisation of a chemical defence, cyanogenic glycosides, in flowers of eleven species of Proteaceae. PLoS ONE, 18 (4). e0285007.

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Abstract

Floral chemical defence strategies remain under-investigated, despite the significance of flowers to plant fitness. We used cyanogenic glycosides (CNglycs)—constitutive secondary metabolites that deter herbivores by releasing hydrogen cyanide, but also play other metabolic roles—to ask whether more apparent floral tissues and those most important for fitness are more defended as predicted by optimal defence theories, and what fine-scale CNglyc localisation reveals about function(s)? Florets of eleven species from the Proteaceae family were dissected to quantitatively compare the distribution of CNglycs within flowers and investigate whether distributions vary with other floral/plant traits. CNglycs were identified and their localisation in florets was revealed by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI). We identified extremely high CNglyc content in floral tissues of several species (>1% CN), highly tissue-specific CNglyc distributions within florets, and substantial interspecific differences in content distributions, not all consistent with optimal defence hypotheses. Four patterns of within-flower CNglyc allocation were identified: greater tissue-specific allocations to (1) anthers, (2) pedicel (and gynophore), (3) pollen presenter, and (4) a more even distribution among tissues with higher content in pistils. Allocation patterns were not correlated with other floral traits (e.g. colour) or taxonomic relatedness. MALDI-MSI identified differential localisation of two tyrosine-derived CNglycs, demonstrating the importance of visualising metabolite localisation, with the diglycoside proteacin in vascular tissues, and monoglycoside dhurrin across floral tissues. High CNglyc content, and diverse, specific within-flower localisations indicate allocations are adaptive, highlighting the importance of further research into the ecological and metabolic roles of floral CNglycs.

Item ID:	78631
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1932-6203
Copyright Information:	© 2023 Ritmejerytė et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Date Deposited:	02 May 2023 00:26
FoR Codes:	31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3108 Plant biology > 310802 Plant biochemistry @ 40% 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310303 Ecological physiology @ 20% 34 CHEMICAL SCIENCES > 3401 Analytical chemistry > 340106 Metabolomic chemistry @ 40%
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