Rabbits
prefer to eat plants with plenty of DNA, according to a new study by Queen Mary
University of London and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
The
researchers also found that it is the opposite for invertebrates, like snails
and insects, as they prefer to eat plants with much less DNA.
Many
factors influence what herbivores such as rabbits eat but the role of genome size, which is
the amount of DNA in an organism's cells, in herbivore-plant interaction was
unknown.
In this
study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers
suggest that genome size should be used as a new measure to improve ecological
models which are designed to predict how plant communities will
respond to ecological change, caused by climate or altered land use for
example.
However,
while the results suggest which plants rabbits and invertebrates prefer, they
could also show that these plants are simply recovering more slowly after being
eaten.
Professor
Andrew Leitch, joint-lead author of the study from Queen Mary University of
London, said: "We demonstrate that genome size plays a role in influencing
plant-herbivore interactions, and suggest the inclusion of genome size in
ecological models has the potential to expand our understanding of plant
productivity and community ecology under nutrient and herbivore stress."
The study
was carried out on grassland west of London, where herbivores have been
excluded for eight years.
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