Evolution of Defensive Traits
The earliest land plants evolved from aquatic plants around 450 million years ago (Ma) in the Ordovician period. Many plants have adapted to iodine-deficient terrestrial environment by removing iodine from their metabolism, in fact iodine is essential only for animal cells. An important antiparasitic action is caused by the block of the transport of iodide of animal cells inhibiting sodium-iodide symporter (NIS). Many plant pesticides are glycosides (as the cardiac digitoxin) and cyanogenic glycosides which liberate cyanide, which, blocking cytochrome c oxidase and NIS, is poisonous only for a large part of parasites and herbivores and not for the plant cells in which it seems useful in seed dormancy phase. Iodide is not pesticide, but is oxidized, by vegetable peroxidase, to iodine, which is a strong oxidant, it is able to kill bacteria, fungi and protozoa. The early land plants had no vascular system and required free water for their reproduction. Vascular plants appeared later and their diversification began in the Devonian era (about 400 Ma). Their reduced dependence on water resulted from adaptations such as protective coatings to reduce evaporation from their tissues. Reproduction and dispersal of vascular plants in these dry conditions was achieved through the evolution of specialized seed structures. The diversification of flowering plants (angiosperms) during the Cretaceous period is associated with the sudden burst of speciation in insects. This diversification of insects represented a major selective force in plant evolution, and led to selection of plants that had defensive adaptations. Early insect herbivores were mandibulate and bit or chewed vegetation; but the evolution of vascular plants lead to the co-evolution of other forms of herbivory, such as sap-sucking, leaf mining, gall forming and nectar-feeding. The relative abundance of different species of plants in ecological communities including forests and grasslands may be determined in part by the level of defensive compounds in the different species. Since the cost of replacement of damaged leaves is higher in conditions where resources are scarce, it may also be that plants growing in areas where water and nutrients are scarce may invest more resources into anti-herbivore defenses.
Read more about this topic: Plant Defense Against Herbivory
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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