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Age- and environment-dependent changes in chemical defences of larval and post-metamorphic toads

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Ecology and Evolution, June 2017
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Title
Age- and environment-dependent changes in chemical defences of larval and post-metamorphic toads
Published in
BMC Ecology and Evolution, June 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12862-017-0956-5
Pubmed ID
Authors

Bálint Üveges, Gábor Fera, Ágnes M. Móricz, Dániel Krüzselyi, Veronika Bókony, Attila Hettyey

Abstract

Chemical defences are widespread in animals, but how their production is adjusted to ecological conditions is poorly known. Optimal defence theory predicts that inducible defences are favoured over constitutive defences when toxin production is costly and the need for it varies across environments. However, if some environmental changes occur predictably (e.g. coupled to transitions during ontogeny), whereas others are unpredictable (e.g. predation, food availability), changes in defences may have constitutive as well as plastic elements. To investigate this phenomenon, we raised common toad (Bufo bufo) tadpoles with ad libitum or limited food and in the presence or absence of chemical cues on predation risk, and measured their toxin content on 5 occasions during early ontogeny. The number of compounds showed limited variation with age in tadpoles and was unaffected by food limitation and predator cues. The total amount of bufadienolides first increased and later decreased during development, and it was elevated in young and mid-aged tadpoles with limited food availability compared to their ad libitum fed conspecifics, whereas it did not change in response to cues on predation risk. We provide the first evidence for the active synthesis of defensive toxin compounds this early during ontogeny in amphibians. Furthermore, the observation of increased quantities of bufadienolides in food-restricted tadpoles is the first experimental demonstration of resource-dependent induction of elevated de novo toxin production, suggesting a role for bufadienolides in allelopathy. Our study shows that the evolution of phenotypic plasticity in chemical defences may depend on the ecological context (i.e. predation vs. competition). Our results furthermore suggest that the age-dependent changes in the diversity of toxin compounds in developing toads may be fixed (i.e., constitutive), timed for the developmental stages in which they are most reliant on their chemical arsenal, whereas inducible plasticity may prevail in the amount of synthesized compounds.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 48 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Serbia 1 2%
Unknown 47 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 10 21%
Student > Bachelor 7 15%
Student > Master 6 13%
Researcher 6 13%
Student > Doctoral Student 4 8%
Other 4 8%
Unknown 11 23%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 17 35%
Environmental Science 8 17%
Chemistry 2 4%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 1 2%
Physics and Astronomy 1 2%
Other 3 6%
Unknown 16 33%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 14 June 2017.
All research outputs
#19,951,180
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#3,171
of 3,714 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#240,150
of 331,711 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#56
of 66 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,382,440 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 18th percentile – i.e., 18% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,714 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 12.5. This one is in the 12th percentile – i.e., 12% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 66 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 10th percentile – i.e., 10% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.