Compounds Repel Slugs

close up of broom forkmoss with small spindly growths grows amongst a forest floor

Biological Strategy

Broom fork-moss

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Protect From Animals

Animals–organisms that range from microscopic to larger than a bus–embody a wide variety of harms to living systems, including other animals. They threaten through predation, herbivory, defense, and parasitism, and they compete for resources such as water, nutrients, and space. Any given living organism commonly faces threats from a variety of animals, requiring strategies that effectively defend from each. Trout and other bony fish, for example, escape predators by having scales made of very thin, flake-like pieces of bone covered with slippery mucus. They also have behavioral strategies such as camouflage, fast swimming, and twisting and turning to achieve release from a predator’s grip.

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Send Chemical Signals (Odor, Taste, Etc.)

Tastes, odors, and hormones are all chemical signals that can float through the air or water, or be applied to solid surfaces. Chemicals are important for signaling and communication; even humans, with our underdeveloped sense of smell, are influenced by chemicals more than we realize. Chemical signals are often specific to the living system intended to receive them, and are often relatively weak, dispersing upon moving through liquids or gases. To ensure that chemical signals reach their target, living systems create unique chemical signals and methods of dispersal. One example is an orchid that is pollinated by dung beetles, and therefore distributes a dung-smelling aroma to attract them.

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Mosses

Division Bryophyta (“moss plant”): Mosses, liverworts, hornworts

Bryophytes are one of the oldest groups of plants, appearing more than 500 million years ago in the Cambrian Period. Mosses are non-vascular, non-flowering, water-loving plants, often cushioning the floor of forests in dense mats. Unlike angiosperms or gymnosperms, mosses do not have fruits or seeds––they reproduce through spores. Currently, there are approximately 12,000 known species of mosses and their relatives. Sphagnum moss has been particularly useful to humans, as a key element in peat, and as a dressing for wounds in traditional cultures and along the battlelines of World War I.

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Tissues of Dicranum moss repel herbivorous slugs by responding to damage with chemical compounds called oxylipins.

“[S]nails don’t like all plants in the same way — they shun moss. Why is
that so?…What spoils the snails’ appetite for moss are oxylipins. ‘These are
compounds which are formed from unsaturated fatty acids by pathways
involving oxidation when the moss is being damaged,’ Prof. Pohnert
explains.” (ScienceDaily 2010)

“The defensive properties of oxylipins from the moss Dicranum
scoparium are far more active than required to fend off herbivory by
a common slug.” (Rempt & Pohnert 2010:4755)

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123500854/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100610104551.htm

Last Updated August 18, 2016

References

Self-Defense Strategies of Moss

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Reference

Journal article

Novel Acetylenic Oxylipins from the Moss Dicranum scoparium with Antifeeding Activity against Herbivorous Slugs

Angewandte Chemie International Edition | 08/06/2010 | Martin Rempt, Georg Pohnert

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