Examining the associations between a generalist feeder and a highly toxic host

Understanding the often antagonistic plant-herbivore interactions and how host defenses can influence herbivore dietary breadth is an area of ongoing study in ecology and evolutionary biology. Typically, host plants/fungi that produce highly noxious chemical defenses are only fed on by specialists. We know very little about generalist species that can feed and develop on a noxious host. One such example of generalists feeding on toxic host occurs in the mushroom-feeding Drosophila found in the immigrans-tripunctata radiation. Although these species are classified as generalists, their acceptable hosts include deadly Amanita species. In this study, we used behavioral assays to assess associations between one mushroom-feeding species, Drosophila guttifera, and the deadly Amanita phalloides. We conducted feeding assays to confirm the presence of cyclopeptide toxin tolerance. We then completed host preference assays in female flies and larvae and did not find a preference for toxic mushroom..., , , Dataset and submission scripts for \"Characterizing the impact and maintenance of specialized toxin tolerance in a generalist species\"

GENERAL INFORMATION

Dates of data collection:
August 2021-December 2022

Keywords:
Plant-Insect Interactions, Host Preference, Competition, Drosophila guttifera, Cyclopeptides, Amanita

DATA & FILE OVERVIEW

General description:
This study examines how tolerance to a highly toxic host compound impacts the feeding behavior of a generalist fly species and how competition affects host preference. Data files are named based on the assay that generated them.

Data files:

1. Data_AdultSurvival.xlsx: survival of individual Drosophila guttifera larvae from two unique genotypes on diets without toxin, a single toxin (alpha-amanitin), and a mix of cyclopeptide toxins coded as binary data (0=deceased, 1=survived to adult), exported from JMP software
2. Data_OvipositionPreference.xlsx: oviposition preference data collected from two unique Drosophila guttifer...

解析具有拮抗关系的动植物-植食动物互作模式，以及宿主防御如何影响植食动物的食性广度，是生态学与进化生物学领域持续关注的研究方向。通常而言，分泌强效有毒化学防御物质的宿主植物/真菌仅会被特食性昆虫取食；而能够在有毒宿主上取食并完成发育的广食性物种相关研究却甚少，一类典型案例见于移民-三斑果蝇辐射类群（immigrans-tripunctata radiation）中的食菇果蝇类群。尽管这些果蝇被归类为广食性物种，但其可利用宿主却包含剧毒的鹅膏属（Amanita）物种。

本研究针对食菇物种斑翅果蝇（Drosophila guttifera）与剧毒的毒鹅膏（Amanita phalloides）之间的关联展开行为学测定：通过取食实验验证其对环肽毒素（cyclopeptide toxin）的耐受性，并分别针对雌蝇与幼虫开展宿主偏好性实验，结果未发现其对有毒蘑菇存在取食偏好……本研究配套数据集与提交脚本源自论文《表征广食性物种特化毒素耐受性的影响与维持机制》。

### 基本信息
数据采集时间：2021年8月—2022年12月
关键词：动植物-昆虫互作、宿主偏好性、种间竞争、斑翅果蝇（Drosophila guttifera）、环肽类毒素、鹅膏属

### 数据与文件概览
#### 总体说明
本研究旨在探讨对高毒性宿主化合物的耐受性如何影响广食性蝇类的取食行为，以及种间竞争如何调控宿主偏好。数据文件以生成该数据的实验类型命名。
#### 数据文件
1. Data_AdultSurvival.xlsx：记录两种不同基因型的斑翅果蝇幼虫在无毒素日粮、单一毒素（α-鹅膏蕈碱，alpha-amanitin）以及环肽毒素混合日粮下的存活情况，采用二元编码（0=死亡，1=羽化至成虫），数据由JMP软件导出
2. Data_OvipositionPreference.xlsx：源自两种不同基因型斑翅果蝇的产卵偏好实验数据……