caa a22 4500 386380384 CHVBK 20180307112039.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e198908 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0266467400003667 doi S0266467400003667 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0266467400003667 Red coloration of tropical young leaves: a possible antifungal defence? [Elektronische Daten] Many woody species in humid tropical forests synchronously flush entire canopies of young red leaves. Numerous unsuccessful attempts have been made to explain the adaptive value of this visually striking phenomenon. In the humid tropics, fungal attack is a potentially important source of mortality for expanding young leaves. We propose that the anthocyanins responsible for the red coloration of young leaves may play a protective role against invasions by leaf-attacking fungal pathogens. Fungus-growing leaf cutting ants (Atta columbica Guerin) were used in choice tests because they are known to select against leaves or chemicals containing fungicidal properties. In feeding trials with leaf discs from 20 common species, ant preference decreased significantly with increasing anthocyanin content. In feeding trials with pure anthocyanin (3,3',4',5,7-pentahydroxyflavylium chloride) presented on oat flakes, ants again showed a significant dosage dependent preference. This suggests that even low concentrations of anthocyanins may be harmful to the fungal colonies of ants. Additional work on the effects of anthocyanin on leafattacking fungi is encouraged. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989 anthocyanin nationallicence antifungal defence nationallicence Atta columbica nationallicence herbivory nationallicence leaf-cutting ants nationallicence Panama nationallicence tropics nationallicence young leaves nationallicence Coley Phyllis D. Biology Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84112, USA Aide T. Mitchell Biology Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84112, USA Journal of Tropical Ecology Cambridge University Press 5/3(1989-08), 293-300 0266-4674 5:3<293 1989 5 TRO https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266467400003667 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266467400003667 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Coley Phyllis D. Biology Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84112, USA NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Aide T. Mitchell Biology Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84112, USA NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of Tropical Ecology Cambridge University Press 5/3(1989-08), 293-300 0266-4674 5:3<293 1989 5 TRO CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge