![Sample our Environment & Agriculture journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5934/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Environment-Agriculture.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Ficus species evolved physical and chemical defense mechanisms to cope with variable environmental conditions. Field observation of Ficus johannis Boiss. (Mountain Fig) indicated that newly-sprouted leaves developed at the base of the plant are skin irritating, but the crown leaves, out of animal reach, do not. Here, we investigated the anatomical and phytochemical characteristics of both leaves of F. johannis growing in the arid mountains of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The results showed the presence of numerous tapering non-glandular and a few glandular trichomes on the newly-sprouted leaves. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis showed the presence of 107 metabolites; out of them, 16 compounds were identified in the newly-sprouted leaves but not in the crown ones. β-Amyrin, α- amyrin, and β-amyrin acetate, known as irritant chemicals, were~5, 3, and 200 times higher in the newly-sprouted leaves than in the crown leaves, respectively. Our study is the first to report the presence of stinging trichomes in Ficus species, a rare type that has been reported in a few angiosperm families. These results indicated that the variety of trichomes on the newly-sprouted leaves and the leaf’s unique metabolites provide sufficient protection mechanisms against grazing animals.
Abbreviations
| CCD | = | Charged-Coupled Device |
| F. | = | Ficus |
| GC-MS | = | Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy |
| HCA | = | Hierarchical Cluster Analysis |
| MSTFA | = | N-methyl-N-trimethylsilyl trifluoroacetamide |
| OL | = | Crown leaves |
| PCA | = | Principal Component Analysis |
| TIC | = | Total ion chromatograms |
| TS | = | Transverse leaf sections |
| UAE | = | United Arab Emirates |
| YL | = | Newly- sprouted leaves |
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Data availability statement
All data are available within the manuscript.
Supplementary data
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/23818107.2023.2192264.
Author Contribution
NA and AH: Investigation, Methodology, Data curation, Writing – original draft & review. HG: Investigation, Data curation. AE: Conceptualization, Investigation,Validation, Writing – review & editing. SSMS: Supervision, Investigation, Validation, Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing.