Author:

Keywords:

Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Physiology, TRP channels, Herbivores, Plant defenses, Noxious chemicals, RECEPTOR POTENTIAL CHANNELS, NICOTINIC ACETYLCHOLINE-RECEPTORS, TRP CHANNELS, ION-CHANNEL, ALLYL ISOTHIOCYANATE, SELECTIVE ACTIVATION, MALPIGHIAN TUBULES, PUNGENT COMPOUNDS, NEUROPATHIC PAIN, GARLIC ACTIVATE, Adaptation, Physiological, Animals, Herbivory, Humans, Insecta, Plants, Sensory Receptor Cells, Taste, Transient Receptor Potential Channels, C14/17/091#54271207, 0606 Physiology, 1106 Human Movement and Sports Sciences, 1116 Medical Physiology, 3101 Biochemistry and cell biology, 3109 Zoology, 3208 Medical physiology

Abstract:

The interactions between plants and their herbivores are highly complex systems generating on one side an extraordinary diversity of plant protection mechanisms and on the other side sophisticated consumer feeding strategies. Herbivores have evolved complex, integrative sensory systems that allow them to distinguish between food sources having mere bad flavors from the actually toxic ones. These systems are based on the senses of taste, olfaction and somatosensation in the oral and nasal cavities, and on post-ingestive chemosensory mechanisms. The potential ability of plant defensive chemical traits to induce tissue damage in foragers is mainly encoded in the latter through chemesthetic sensations such as burning, pain, itch, irritation, tingling, and numbness, all of which induce innate aversive behavioral responses. Here, we discuss the involvement of transient receptor potential (TRP) channels in the chemosensory mechanisms that are at the core of complex and fascinating plant-herbivore ecological networks. We review how "sensory" TRPs are activated by a myriad of plant-derived compounds, leading to cation influx, membrane depolarization, and excitation of sensory nerve fibers of the oronasal cavities in mammals and bitter-sensing cells in insects. We also illustrate how TRP channel expression patterns and functionalities vary between species, leading to intriguing evolutionary adaptations to the specific habitats and life cycles of individual organisms.