Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.
Amino acids detected in the floral nectars of
phrygana
using HPLC analysis. Values
for particular amino acids, calculated from the data given in Petanidou et al. (2006), are averages
over all plant species in the community (
n
= 73, excluding
Thymelaea hirsuta
and
Crocus
cancellatus
with possible nectar contamination by pollen). Three different amino acid com-
pounds are lumped together under “unknown”. “Total amino acids” is the sum of all amino
acids in the nectar. Amino acids that were not commonly detected in the nectars are flagged
with * (found in less than 70% of the study species) and ** (in less than 10% of the species).
Mean quantity
(pmoles/flower)
% of total
amino acids
Amino acids
SE
Arginine
78
17.4
2.8
Asparagine
152
43.8
5.6
Aspartic acid
234
140.0
8.6
Glutamic acid
66
16.7
2.4
Glycine + threonine
218
35.3
8.0
Histidine + glutamine
231
61.6
8.5
Isoleucine
33
6.6
1.2
Leucine
52
10.1
1.9
Lysine
68
11.9
2.5
Methionine*
55
23.8
2.0
Ornithine
101
17.5
3.7
Phenylalanine
715
229.5
26.2
Serine
166
26.2
6.1
Tryptophan
43
11.2
1.6
Tyrosine + alanine
250
40.2
9.2
Unknown*
71
21.5
2.6
Valine
119
18.7
4.4
H-serine**
2
2.1
0.1
β-Alanine**
3
1.9
0.1
GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid)*
75
24.6
2.7
Total amino acids
2,731
469.1
100.0
used by the authors. (These amino acids are relatively common in some of
the nectars originating from areas outside the Mediterranean: Baker &
Baker, 1978; Gottsberger et al., 1984; Gardener & Gillman, 2001b). The
same holds for taurine and AABA (i.e., α-aminobutyric acid), both found in
the English nectars analysed by Gardener and Gillman (2001b). Of all the
amino acids detected in the nectars of
phrygana
, 15 were common to nearly
all nectars of the 73 species tested (Table 1, Petanidou et al., 2006). The
authors compared their data set to those given by Gardener and Gillman
