Tobacco Hornworm Caterpillars Use Toxic Nicotine Breath to Repulse Predatory Spiders
Posted on January 2, 2014
Tobacco hornworm caterpillars use a toxic nicotine breath to keep spiders from eating them. Max Planck Institute of Chemical Ecology researchers discovered the caterpillars have a gene, called CYP6B46, that enables them to consume nicotine and exhale some of it for defensive purposes. The nicotine is released through small holes (spiracles) on the sides of the caterpillar. ABC News reports that these tobacco hornworms have the greatest nicotine tolerance of any animal.
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology Director Ian Baldwin told ABC News that the tobacco hornworm has a nicotine tolerance 750 times greater than that of humans. Baldwin says, "It's about 750 times greater than that of humans, even someone who smokes four packs a day. We found a gene that was regulated with nicotine ingestion, and we were trying to figure out what it actually does."
The first video below shows a caterpillar using its toxic breath to repulse a wolf spider that wants to consume it. The researchers also altered a tobacco plant so that it silenced the caterpillar's special nicotine gene. Caterpillars that ate this modified plant were unable to repel predatory spiders with their breath (second video). Take a look:
The research was published here in PNAS.
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