DEFENSE ALLOMONES OF SOME MARINE MOLLUSKS

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/0040-4020(82)80034-3

Certain marine mollusks that lack obvious physical protection have evolved various biological and chemical defense strategies.One type of chemical defense involves accumulation of small organic molecules largely from the diet, which afford protection from common predators.Our work and research by others has shown that the animals can utilize different structural types.Interestingly several of the defense allomones which have been defined are structurally related to the drimane sesquiterpenoids which have been shown to be antifeedants against terrestrial insects.