| Evolutionary Biology of Plant Defenses Against Herbivory and Their Predictive Implications For Endocrine Disruptor Susceptibility in Vertebrates Katherine E. Wynne-Edwards Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada Abstract
Hormone disruption is a major, underappreciated component of the plant chemical arsenal, and the historical coevolution between hormone-disrupting plants and herbivores will have both increased the susceptibility of carnivores and diversified the sensitivities of herbivores to man-made endocrine disruptors. Here I review diverse evidence of the influence of plant secondary compounds on vertebrate reproduction, including human reproduction. Three of the testable hypotheses about the evolutionary responses of vertebrate herbivores to hormone-disrupting challenges from their diet are developed. Specifically, the hypotheses are that a) vertebrate herbivores will express steroid hormone receptors in the buccal cavity and/or the vomeronasal organ ; b) absolute sex steroid concentrations will be lower in carnivores than in herbivores ; and c) herbivore steroid receptors should be more diverse in their binding affinities than carnivore lineages. The argument developed in this review, if empirically validated by support for the specific hypotheses, suggests that a) carnivores will be more susceptible than herbivores to endocrine-disrupting compounds of anthropogenic origin entering their bodies, and b) diverse herbivore lineages will be variably susceptible to any given natural or synthetic contaminant. As screening methods for hormone-disrupting potential are compared and adopted, comparative endocrine physiology research is urgently needed to develop models that predict the broad applicability of those screening results in diverse vertebrate species. Key words: endocrine disruptors, estrogen receptor, evolution, diet, fertility, plant-herbivore coevolution, sex steroids. Environ Health Perspect 109:443-448 (2001) . [Online 24 April 2001] http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2001/109p443-448wynne-edwards/ abstract.html Address correspondence to K.E. Wynne-Edwards, Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada K7L 3N6. Telephone: (613) 533-6349. Fax: (613) 533-6617. E-mail: wynneedw@biology.queensu.ca The questions and challenges of colleagues, students, and nonscientists were constructive in guiding the development of these ideas over the past few years and in encouraging me to write them down. Research was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada Operating Grant. Received 25 September 2000 ; accepted 14 November 2000.
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