Lecture 13

Plant/animal/microbe inter-reliance
(‘Animal’ diversity 1)

We started to consider the interaction between groups or organisms last time, when we reviewed
vertebrate animals as pollinators. The vertebrates are at the top of the evolutionary scale of the
animals, but as all animals are heterotrophs, the vast majority depend upon plant materials for their
existence and one aim of this lecture is to show how inter-dependent plants, animals, and indeed
microbes, are, and how this inter-dependency has contributed to biodiversity in each group. Some
authorities credit plants with creating the selective pressure for some vertebrates and insects to evolve
the ability to fly [movie – hoverfly pollinator] in order to obtain their food. By far the most numerous and
familiar pollinators are the insects. Bees, butterflies and hoverflies obtain rewards (e.g. nectar, which
they get with long, tube-like tongues), while transferring pollen from one plant to another. Many
biologists believe that animals have been shaping the evolution and diversity of plants and vice versa
since their earliest encounters – was there selective pressure for the sporangia of early land plants to
be raised above the ground for more effective wind dispersal, to get away from animals on the ground
that might eat the spores, or to bring the spores to the attention of animals which transported them to
new places? We will of course never know.

Although many plants reward their pollinators, at least one third of the most successful group of
monocot flowering plants (30,000 or so species in total) - the orchids (hundreds of which are
horticulturally important [example shown in lecture] as well as environmentally successful), are sexually
deceptive plants [briefly covered in text book p847]. These plants “cheat” their pollinators as they
provide no reward. Orchids package pollen in pollinia (structures that detach in their entirety rather than
shed dust-like pollen [you will see examples on BIOL 10622 Majorca field trip]). The elaborate flower
structures have three ways to ensure that an insect visitor removes the pollinia, then transports the
pollen they contain to the stigmas of the next potential “mate”. 1. The flower parts resemble the female
of the insect species (e.g. Mirror orchid – handout; movie) 2. the pollinia have a very effective adhesive
that makes it very difficult for insects to groom them off. 3. the extremely complex molecules that are
very specific mating pheromones for each species of insect are faithfully reproduced or even bettered
by the orchid – elaborate hinged flower part of Hammer orchids, pollinated by Thynnid wasps, is one
example [movie]. The female wasp has no wings so cannot fly, and only emerges from the ground at
one time of the year. The male flies off with the female wasp to mate, but cannot fly off with the mimic,
so is thrust into the part of the flower where the pollinia are, and they become stuck to his head. When
he is duped by the next orchid, the pollinia are pressed against the next stigma, break open and
release some pollen. This means that pollination happens in a gradual fashion – many flowers visited –
some pollen deposited on each.

One of the most fascinating of such liaisons is evidenced by the Lissopimpla excelsa wasps attracted
to Australian tongue orchids (Cryptostylis). These wasps are so convinced by the mimicry that their
efforts to mate can result in ejaculation (pollination success for the orchids is enhanced if this
happens). This reduces their mating success with real female wasps, but Zoology students might like to
read “Orchids sex trick fools male wasps” New Scientist April 19 th 2008 p 8
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19826524.400-orchid-sex-trick-fools-male-wasps.html (or, if you are feeling very brave,
the reference to the primary literature therein -The American Naturalist, DOI: 10.1086/587532) for the account of
how female wasps can nevertheless compensate, and, importantly, how the orchid might benefit still
further from the results!
Another form of deception has evolved in Dendrobium sinense orchids, which make the alarm
pheromone used by honeybees to signal hornet attack to other bees [read more about this and other
examples of deception that involves animals and orchid in http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/orchids-mimic-
alarm-pheromones-of-bees-to-attract-wasps/] (includes a link to the first part of the movie shown in the lecture)

Animals may have preceded but at least accompanied plants onto the land and have probably been
helpful for hundreds of millions of years in dispersing some plant propagules [New Scientist article
referred to in lecture 1; “Invasion Earth”]. There is clear evidence for bite marks in the sporangia of the
earliest land plants [handout] – maybe the animals ate the spores, but modern day experiments show
that over 90% of bracken spores pass through the alimentary tract of locusts unscathed, and able to
germinate, so some early bryophytes and pterophytes may have been animal-dispersed. A few living
groups of non-seed-bearing plants are today (e.g. Splachnum).

The earliest land plants were also very obviously colonised by fungi [e.g. Aglaophyton, handout] – and
there is every reason to suspect that these were mycorrhizal associations. Myco = fungus, rhiz = root,
most current day plants also have these, the fungal hyphae that extend into the soil vastly increase the
surface area of roots and therefore enhance the uptake of minerals and water. This may have made
the difference between life and death for the earliest land plants in the initially-nutrient-poor terrestrial
environment, mycorrhizal associations still account for enormous agricultural gains [see p841 textbook
for further reading if you are interested - mutualistic relationships like this will be considered again in
later lectures, and fungi are considered in considerably more detail in “Microbes, Man & Environment”
unit next semester]. They help plants generate sufficient reserves to make seeds, which is where
animals can come in to the story again.

We have considered pollination in plants – either physical (e.g. wind-) or biological (e.g. animal-)
assisted. Seed dispersal is a similar story. A seed is the embryo, endosperm and seed coat [handout;
30.10]. Once a compatible pollen grain arrives on a stigma, it germinates (usually quite some distance
from the ovule) and a tube carries TWO sperm nuclei in. One nucleus fuses with the egg nucleus, the
other fuses with two nuclei in the female gametophyte tissue. This double fertilisation is a defining
characteristic of angiosperms. The egg and sperm produce the zygote (sporophyte embryo – 2n) and
the product of the other fusion (usually 3n) divides repeatedly to produce endosperm – tissue that
becomes the food reserves for the developing embryo eg coconut milk and flesh. This means that
nutrients are not wasted on unfertilised ovules (cf. gymnosperms).

The event of pollination triggers hormonal changes that cause the ovary to grow into a fruit. There are
fruits of many different types – each may have a single seed or many; they huge and woody (eg
coconut [handout]), or fleshy (eg blackberry). As with pollination, they may rely on purely passive
physical means (eg wind – dandelion; water - coconut) for dispersal - coconut [sea] [see “The last
word” : “Coconut cruise” : New Sci 24 th March 2007 http://www.newscientist.com/backpage.ns?id=mg19325962.800]
dandelion - parachute-like top, perfect for open situations with a breeze – or the winged structure in
sycamore, (http://www.arkive.org/sycamore/acer-pseudoplatanus/video-09b.html) [handout]; or animals.
Examples of seeds that are animal-couriered include a huge diversity of forms of fruits, and the plants
and their couriers range from generalists (eg hooked seeds [handout, 30.9; movie] – any passing
animal) to specialists (eg grapple plant and ostrich) [handout]. Lures/rewards for couriers include:
 Visual cues (vertebrates such as birds attracted to red and black [movie]) and the most
sophisticated mature sequentially, so they get visited by many couriers and thus the seeds are
distributed widely (eg blackberries; yew).
 Olfactory cues (e.g. Durian – attracts Orang Utan [and other primates, eg man] in Borneo) [see
“movies from the lectures” with extra footage which may be of interest to zoologists and
environmnental scientists]
 Nutrition (e.g. yew [last lecture] and plants with protein or other reward package attached to the
seed: ants [movie] and carrion flies in Dead horse arum [handout and movies] – see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv2K8-SuHLk and if interested in heat production, which often
generates olfactory lures for pollinators, see “Thermogenic plants”, Biological Sciences Review –
in resources]). [Students on the Majorca and Greek field trips will probably encounter a Dead
horse arum – if so, watch out for pollinators and any animals taking advantage of the plant’s
attraction for carrion flies].

(All movies in shown in the lecture taken from Private Life of Plants and Planet Earth BBC)

Hopefully that gives you some more ideas for the ePoster requirement for this unit. You need to check
on the degree programmes of all the members of your group as your poster MUST relate to any
specialised discipline of any of the members. There is no need to meet physically to agree content as
you have a facility (on Blackboard) that is exclusive to your group (but if you decide to use Facebook,
or other medium you will need to convince me the whole group knew about it and keep a record of your
discussions if you want to argue that someone didn’t contribute as the medium provided is Blackboard
and it wouldn’t be fair on students who aren’t on Facebook etc and they didn’t know what you were
discussing!)

BIOL10511Lecture Key learning outcomes Key words

13 Appreciate how some Sexual deception
plants and animals may Mycorrhiza
have shaped each Pheromone
other’s evolution. Double fertilization
Understand the Fruit
diversity of dispersal Olfactory lure
mechanisms used by Thermogenic
plants.
Understand the inter-
dependence of plants,
animals and fungi.
Understand the main
feature that explains the
dominance of
angiosperms, and the
range of mechanisms
 used for seed dispersal.

Points for (PASS) discussion

After you graduate, when might you need to collaborate electronically rather than in person on a
poster? (and can you make sure everyone does roughly the same amount of work or doesn’t that
matter?).

Why/how do some plants produce heat?