Neuroecology, Chemical Defense, and the Keystone Species Concept

2007/12/01 by Richard K. Zimmer, Ryan P. Ferrer · 69 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Environmental Science · #Biology #Chemical ecology #Ecology #Ecosystem #Evolutionary biology #Food web #Keystone species #Marine Biology and Environmental Chemistry #Marine Toxins and Detection Methods #Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors Study #Population #Predation #Trophic cascade #Trophic level

paper · doi:10.2307/25066641

published in Biological Bulletin 213(3), 208-225 (Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL))

openalex publication_date 2007/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Neuroecology unifies principles from diverse disciplines, scaling from biophysical properties of nerve and muscle cells to community-wide impacts of trophic interactions. Here, these principles are used as a common fabric, woven from threads of chemosensory physiology, behavior, and population and community ecology. The "keystone species" concept, for example, is seminal in ecological theory. It defines a species whose impacts on communities are far greater than would be predicted from its relative abundance and biomass. Similarly, neurotoxins could function in keystone roles. They are rare within natural habitats but exert strong effects on species interactions at multiple trophic levels. Effects of two guanidine alkaloids, tetrodotoxin (TTX) and saxitoxin (STX), coalesce neurobiological and ecological perspectives. These molecules compose some of the most potent natural poisons ever described, and they are introduced into communities by one, or only a few, host species. Functioning as voltage-gated sodium channel blockers for nerve and muscle cells, TTX and STX serve in chemical defense. When borrowed by resistant consumer species, however, they are used either in chemical defense against higher order predators or for chemical communication as chemosensory excitants. Cascading effects of the compounds profoundly impact community-wide attributes, including species compositions and rates of material exchange. Thus, a diverse array of physiological traits, expressed differentially across many species, renders TTX and STX fully functional as keystone molecules, with vast ecological consequences at multiple trophic levels.

Citations

• Cascading Trophic Interactions and Lake Productivity
• Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning: Effects on Breeding Terns
• Organisms as Ecosystem Engineers

Cited by

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• Community Ecology and the Evolution of Molecules of Keystone Significance
• The molecular mystique of tetrodotoxin
• Impacts of Pollutants on Beavers and Otters with Implications for Ecosystem Ramifications
• The chemical ecology of cyanobacteria. [europepmc]
• Inhibition of copper uptake in yeast reveals the copper transporter Ctr1p as a potential molecular target of saxitoxin. [europepmc]
• An overview on the marine neurotoxin, saxitoxin: genetics, molecular targets, methods of detection and ecological functions. [europepmc]
• Recent progress in neuroactive marine natural products. [europepmc]
• A multifunctional chemical cue drives opposing demographic processes and structures ecological communities. [europepmc]
• Complementary mechanisms for neurotoxin resistance in a copepod. [europepmc]
• A Multiplex Analysis of Potentially Toxic Cyanobacteria in Lake Winnipeg during the 2013 Bloom Season. [europepmc]
• Continuous Inking Affects the Biological and Biochemical Responses of Cuttlefish Sepia pharaonis . [europepmc]
• Natural Products in Polyclad Flatworms. [europepmc]
• Structural Characterization and Spatial Mapping of Tetrodotoxins in Australian Polyclads. [europepmc]
• Toxin Dynamics among Populations of the Bioluminescent HAB Species Pyrodinium bahamense from the Indian River Lagoon, FL. [europepmc]
• Defensive polyketides produced by an abundant gastropod are candidate keystone molecules in estuarine ecology. [europepmc]

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