NDLI: Elimination of plant toxins by herbivorous woodrats: revisiting an explanation for dietary specialization in mammalian herbivores

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Sorensen, J. Dearing, M.
Copyright Year	2002
Abstract	Constraints on rates of detoxification and elimination of plant toxins are thought to be responsible for limiting dietary specialization in mammalian herbivores. This hypothesis, known as the detoxification limitations hypothesis, suggests that most mammalian herbivores are generalists to avoid overdosing on toxins from a single plant species. The hypothesis also predicts that the few mammalian specialists that exist should have adaptations for rapid detoxification and elimination of plant secondary compounds. We took a pharmacological approach to test whether specialists eliminate toxins from the bloodstream faster than generalists. We compared elimination rate and total exposure of alpha-pinene in closely related dietary specialist and generalist woodrats, Neotoma stephensi and N. albigula, respectively. Animals were orally gavaged with alpha-pinene, a plant secondary compound present in the natural diets of both woodrat species. We collected venous blood at 3, 6, 10, 15, and 20 min post-ingestion of alpha-pinene. Blood was analyzed for alpha-pinene concentration using gas chromatography. We found that specialist and generalist woodrats did not differ in elimination rates of alpha-pinene. However, specialists had lower exposure levels of alpha-pinene than generalists due to lower initial delivery of alpha-pinene to the general circulation. The levels of alpha-pinene detected in the bloodstream of specialists were 4.7–5.3× lower over all time intervals than generalists. Thus, specialists encounter a functionally lower dose of toxin than generalists. We suggest that the lower exposure level of specialist woodrats may be due to mechanisms in the gut that decrease toxin absorption. Regardless of mechanism, lower exposure to plant toxins may allow specialists to forage on diets with high toxin concentrations thereby facilitating dietary specialization.
Starting Page	88
Ending Page	94
Page Count	7
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00298549
Journal	Oecologia
Volume Number	134
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	14321939
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2002-10-22
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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