Meeting Abstract
Birds and bats rely heavily on paracellular nutrient absorption, unlike non-flying mammals, which rely principally on transporter-mediated transcellular absorption. This characteristic should make birds and bats less susceptible to the physiological effects of naturally occurring plant toxins that inhibit intestinal glucose transporters, such as SGLT1. Previously, E.R.P and colleagues proposed that this could allow plants to favor flying seed dispersers, thus encouraging long-distance dispersal. While this is difficult to test, a more tractable approach takes advantage of the ‘dispersal syndrome’ concept. Historically, a mammal/bird dichotomy has been suggested for dispersal syndromes in forest ecosystems. Here we propose a flyer/nonflyer dichotomy, thus grouping bats with birds. Further, we propose that plant secondary metabolites be included as a key trait in this syndrome.
