Identification of Potential Metabolites Mediating Bird's Selective Feeding on Prunus mira Flowers.

Shanshan Zhang,Yongning Cui,Fan Zhao,Hong Ying,Jian Shi,Shuo Wang,Xiuli Zeng,Hu Zeng,Gesang Pingcuo

doi:10.1155/2019/1395480

Shanshan Zhang, Yongning Cui + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/1395480

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Abstract

In peach orchards, birds severely damage flowers during blossom season, decreasing the fruit yield potential. However, the wild peach species Prunus mira shows intraspecific variations of bird damage, indicating that some of the wild trees have developed strategies to avert bird foraging. Motivated by this observation, we formulated the present study to identify the potential flower metabolites mediating the bird's selective feeding behavior in P. mira flowers. The birds' preferred (FG) and avoided (BFT) flowers were collected from wild P. mira trees at three different locations, and their metabolite contents were detected, quantified, and compared. The widely-targeted metabolomics approach was employed to detect a diverse set of 603 compounds, predominantly, organic acids, amino acid derivatives, nucleotide and its derivatives, and flavones. By quantitatively comparing the metabolite contents between FG and BFT, three candidate metabolites, including Eriodictiol 6-C-hexoside 8-C-hexoside-O-hexoside, Luteolin O-hexosyl-O-hexosyl-O-hexoside, and Salvianolic acid A, were differentially accumulated and showed the same pattern across the three sampling locations. Distinctly, Salvianolic acid A was abundantly accumulated in FG but absent in BFT, implying that it may be the potential metabolite attracting birds in some P. mira flowers. Overall, this study sheds light on the diversity of the floral metabolome in P. mira and suggests that the bird's selective feeding behavior may be mediated by variations in floral metabolite contents.

Highlights

Bird damage is a persistent concern faced by fruit-growers, inflicting significant economic losses
We investigated the major discrepancies in the metabolic profiles of the preferred and avoided flowers from wild P. mira trees at three different locations in order to identify the potential metabolites mediating the bird’s selective feeding behavior
We successfully detected for the first time 603 compounds in P. mira flowers (Table S1)

Summary

Introduction

Bird damage is a persistent concern faced by fruit-growers, inflicting significant economic losses. Birds cause losses to horticulture by damaging or removing shoots, stems, foliage, flowers, and buds or fruits. In Australia, total bird damage to horticultural production was estimated at nearly $300 million annually [1]. Aggregate bird damage in five crops and states in the United States was estimated at $189 million [2]. Elser et al [3] demonstrated that sweet cherry production of the United States decreased by about $185 to $238 million without the use of bird management. The available techniques for bird damage management are mostly ineffective [2, 4]

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