An experimental study of locally adaptive evolution in interaction system consisting of a herbivorous mammal, a plant and a herbivorous insect

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22570019
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: Nara Women's University
• Principal Investigator: SATO HIROAKI 奈良女子大学, 自然科学系, 准教授 (20196265)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KIMURA Masahito 北海道大学, 地球環境科学研究科, 教授 (30091440)
• Project Period (FY): 2010-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: イラクサ / ニホンジカ / 防御形質 / アカタテハ / 進化 / 自然淘汰 / 奈良公園 / 被食誘導応答

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Nettles in Nara Park, where several handred sika deer have been protected for 1200 years, have many stinging hairs on shoots. We found that (1) among-population variation in stinging hair density was dependent upon the density of sika deer, (2) stinging hairs served as defense against deer, but not herbivorous insects, and (3) the nettle population in the park obviously differed from other populations at the level of genome-wide structure. These findings suggest that hairy nettles in the park evolved through natural selection under intensive browsing by deer. Furthermore, we demonstrated that red admiral butterfly larvae from Nara Park and another location attained greater growth performance when reared on nettles of sympatric origins than when reared those of allopatric origins. This implies that butterflies in the park are locally adapted to hairy nettles of the park. Consequently, local adaptation of the butterfly to hairy nettles would have been driven by multispecies interactions.

Free Research Field

生態学，とくに植物と動物の相互作用