Phenotypic plasticity and/or pollinatormediated selection may be responsible for the changes in floral traits of plants when they are forced to live in new conditions. Although the two events could be independent, we ...Phenotypic plasticity and/or pollinatormediated selection may be responsible for the changes in floral traits of plants when they are forced to live in new conditions. Although the two events could be independent, we hypothesized that phenotypic plasticity in floral traits might help to coordinate plant-pollinator interactions and enhance plant reproductive success in changing habitats. To test this hypothesis, we investigated floral traits and pollination on three natural populations of a lousewort(Pedicularis siphonantha) ranging at different elevations, as well as two downward transplanted populations in Shangeri-La County and Deqin County, northwest Yunnan, China. The results indicated that floral traits, i.e. phenology, longevity,display size, corolla tube length and pollen production differed significantly among populations. Moreover,or the two transplanted populations, floral traits diverged from their original populations, but converged to their host populations. Although the phenotypic plasticity in floral traits might be a rapid response to abiotic factor such as warmer environment, the changes in floral traits were found to be well adapted to pollination environment of the host population. Compared with plants of their original habitats in higher elevation, the transplanted individuals advanced flowering time, shortened flower longevity, reduced floral display size and pollen production, received higher visiting frequency and yielded more seeds. These findings suggested that phenotypic plasticity of floral traits might help plants adjust their resource allocation strategy between preand post-pollination stages in response to harsh or temperate conditions, which might correspondingly meet a pollinator-poor or hyphen rich environment.This would be beneficial for the widely-distributed species to adapt to various environmental changes.展开更多
A few individuals with intermediate morphology always appeared in the sympatric distributions of Gentiana straminea and G.siphonantha.These intermediate individuals were hypothesized to be the hybrids of two species a...A few individuals with intermediate morphology always appeared in the sympatric distributions of Gentiana straminea and G.siphonantha.These intermediate individuals were hypothesized to be the hybrids of two species after a careful evaluation of their morphological characteristics.To test this hypothesis,sequence comparison of the internal transcribed spacer(ITS)regions of the nuclear ribosomal and trnS(GCU)-trnG(UCC)intergenic spacer region of the chloroplast DNA from Gentiana straminea,G.siphonantha and the putative hybrids was performed.The results suggest that most intermediate individuals were the natural hybrids between G.straminea and G.siphonantha.In addition,we examined the sequence variation among the individuals of both parent species and analyzed the possibility leading to the incongruent identification in some individuals based on morphologic and molecular evidences,respectively.The intraspecific diversification of DNA fragments within both parent species and their high variability in hybrid swarms probably resulted from chloroplast genome recombination and incomplete lineage sorting during the early stages of speciation origin of the parent species.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31370263 and 31770255)
文摘Phenotypic plasticity and/or pollinatormediated selection may be responsible for the changes in floral traits of plants when they are forced to live in new conditions. Although the two events could be independent, we hypothesized that phenotypic plasticity in floral traits might help to coordinate plant-pollinator interactions and enhance plant reproductive success in changing habitats. To test this hypothesis, we investigated floral traits and pollination on three natural populations of a lousewort(Pedicularis siphonantha) ranging at different elevations, as well as two downward transplanted populations in Shangeri-La County and Deqin County, northwest Yunnan, China. The results indicated that floral traits, i.e. phenology, longevity,display size, corolla tube length and pollen production differed significantly among populations. Moreover,or the two transplanted populations, floral traits diverged from their original populations, but converged to their host populations. Although the phenotypic plasticity in floral traits might be a rapid response to abiotic factor such as warmer environment, the changes in floral traits were found to be well adapted to pollination environment of the host population. Compared with plants of their original habitats in higher elevation, the transplanted individuals advanced flowering time, shortened flower longevity, reduced floral display size and pollen production, received higher visiting frequency and yielded more seeds. These findings suggested that phenotypic plasticity of floral traits might help plants adjust their resource allocation strategy between preand post-pollination stages in response to harsh or temperate conditions, which might correspondingly meet a pollinator-poor or hyphen rich environment.This would be beneficial for the widely-distributed species to adapt to various environmental changes.
基金The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.30572329).
文摘A few individuals with intermediate morphology always appeared in the sympatric distributions of Gentiana straminea and G.siphonantha.These intermediate individuals were hypothesized to be the hybrids of two species after a careful evaluation of their morphological characteristics.To test this hypothesis,sequence comparison of the internal transcribed spacer(ITS)regions of the nuclear ribosomal and trnS(GCU)-trnG(UCC)intergenic spacer region of the chloroplast DNA from Gentiana straminea,G.siphonantha and the putative hybrids was performed.The results suggest that most intermediate individuals were the natural hybrids between G.straminea and G.siphonantha.In addition,we examined the sequence variation among the individuals of both parent species and analyzed the possibility leading to the incongruent identification in some individuals based on morphologic and molecular evidences,respectively.The intraspecific diversification of DNA fragments within both parent species and their high variability in hybrid swarms probably resulted from chloroplast genome recombination and incomplete lineage sorting during the early stages of speciation origin of the parent species.
