Insect warning colors aid cancer and tropical disease drug discovery

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Colorful beetle may indicate useful plant chemicals. Credit: Don Windsor STRI
Colorful beetle may indicate useful plant chemicals. Credit: Don Windsor, STRI

Brightly colored beetles or butterfly larvae nibbling on a plant may signal the presence of chemical compounds active against cancer cell lines and tropical parasitic diseases, according to researchers at Smithsonian's Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Such clues could speed drug discovery and provide insight into the ecological relationships between tropical-forest plants and insects that feed on them. The report is published in the Ecological Society of America's journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.


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