Which Specialized Metabolites Does the Native Subantarctic Gastropod Notodiscus hookeri Extract from the Consumption of the Lichens Usnea taylorii and Pseudocyphellaria crocata?

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2017-03, Vol.22 (3), p.425
• Main Authors: Gadea, Alice, Le Pogam, Pierre, Biver, Grichka, Boustie, Joël, Le Lamer, Anne-Cécile, Le Dévéhat, Françoise, Charrier, Maryvonne
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal biology; Animals; Biodiversity and Ecology; Biological properties; Biological samples; chemical ecology; Crozet Archipelago; Ecology, environment; Environmental Sciences; Excretion; Gastropoda - physiology; Herbivory; High-performance liquid chromatography; Hydrolysis; Intestine; Invertebrate Zoology; Invertebrates; Lichens; Lichens - chemistry; Lichens - metabolism; Life Sciences; Liquid chromatography; Metabolic response; Metabolism; Metabolites; Metabolomics - methods; Notodiscus hookeri; Phytochemicals - chemistry; Pseudocyphellaria crocata; Side effects; Snails; Symbiosis; Terrestrial environments; Toxicity; Usnea; Usnea taylorii
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules22030425

is the only representative of terrestrial gastropods on Possession Island and exclusively feeds on lichens. The known toxicity of various lichen metabolites to plant-eating invertebrates led us to propose that evolved means to protect itself from their adverse effects. To validate this assumption, the current study focused on the consumption of two lichen species: and . A controlled feeding experiment was designed to understand how the snail copes with the unpalatable and/or toxic compounds produced by these lichen species. The occurrence of two snail ecophenotypes, represented by a mineral shell and an organic shell, led to address the question of a metabolic response specific to the phenotype. Snails were fed for two months with one of these lichens and the chemical profiles of biological samples of (i.e., crop, digestive gland, intestine, and feces) were established by HPLC-DAD-MS and compared to that of the lichens. appears as a generalist lichen feeder able to consume toxic metabolite-containing lichens, independently of the ecophenotype. The digestive gland did not sequester lichen metabolites. The snail metabolism might be based on four non-exclusive processes according to the concerned metabolites (avoidance, passive transport, hydrolysis, and excretion).