Generalized mutualisms promote range expansion in both plant and ant partners

Nathan, Pooja; Economo, Evan P.; Guénard, Benoit; Simonsen, Anna K.; Frederickson, Megan E.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2023.1083

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…Notable examples of symbiosis-mediated innovations include the gain of autotrophy [3] and gain of nitrogen fixation [4]. Such innovations have permitted symbiotic organisms to invade new ecological zones [5] and have led to the formation of entirely new biomes, such as coral reefs. Consequently, endosymbioses underpin the function of many varied ecosystems, spanning terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fitness trade-offs and the origins of endosymbiosis

Brockhurst,

Cameron,

Beckerman

2024

PLoS Biol

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Endosymbiosis drives evolutionary innovation and underpins the function of diverse ecosystems. The mechanistic origins of symbioses, however, remain unclear, in part because early evolutionary events are obscured by subsequent evolution and genetic drift. This Essay highlights how experimental studies of facultative, host-switched, and synthetic symbioses are revealing the important role of fitness trade-offs between within-host and free-living niches during the early-stage evolution of new symbiotic associations. The mutational targets underpinning such trade-offs are commonly regulatory genes, such that single mutations have major phenotypic effects on multiple traits, thus enabling and reinforcing the transition to a symbiotic lifestyle.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fitness trade-offs and the origins of endosymbiosis

Brockhurst,

Cameron,

Beckerman

2024

PLoS Biol

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“…This keystone effect of mutualistic interactions is even more critical under the increasingly fast environmental changes that are the hallmark of the Anthropocene [3]. For instance, interactions with mycorrhizal fungi can ameliorate stressful environmental conditions and allow plants to occupy otherwise unsuitable habitats [4][5][6][7][8]. Alternatively, mutualisms can…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coevolutionary hotspots favour dispersal and fuel biodiversity in mutualistic landscapes under environmental changes

Cosmo,

Acquaviva,

Guimarães Jr.

et al. 2024

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Mutualistic interactions are key to sustaining Earth’s biodiversity. Yet, we are only beginning to understand how coevolution in mutualistic assemblages can shape the distribution and persistence of species across landscapes. Here, we combine the geographic mosaic theory of coevolution with metacommunity dynamics to understand how geographically structured selection can shape patterns of richness, dispersal, extinction and persistence of mutualistic species. In this model, species may experience strong or weak reciprocal selection imposed by mutualisms within each patch (i.e. hotspots and coldspots, respectively). Using numerical simulations, we show that mutualistic coevolution leads to a concentration of species richness at hotspots. Such an effect occurs because hotspots sustain higher rates of colonization and lower rates of extinction than coldspots, whether the environment changes or not. Importantly, under environmental changes, coldspots fail to sustain a positive colonization-to-extinction balance. Rather, species persistence within coldspots relies on hotspots acting as biodiversity sources and enhancing population dispersal across the landscape. In fact, even a few hotspots in the landscape can fuel the spatial network of dispersal of populations in the metacommunity. Our study highlights that coevolutionary hotspots can act as biodiversity sources, favouring colonization and allowing species to expand their distribution across landscapes even in changing environments. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Diversity-dependence of dispersal: interspecific interactions determine spatial dynamics’.

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Global biogeographic regions for ants have complex relationships with those for plants and tetrapods

Wang,

Kass,

Chaudhary

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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On a global scale, biodiversity is geographically structured into regions of biotic similarity. Delineating these regions has been mostly targeted for tetrapods and plants, but those for hyperdiverse groups such as insects are relatively unknown. Insects may have higher biogeographic congruence with plants than tetrapods due to their tight ecological and evolutionary links with the former, but it remains untested. Here, we develop a global regionalization for a major and widespread insect group, ants, based on the most comprehensive distributional and phylogenetic information to date, and examine its similarity to regionalizations for tetrapods and vascular plants. Our ant regionalization supports the newly proposed Madagascan and Sino-Japanese realms based on tetrapod delineations, and it recovers clusters observed in plants but not in tetrapods, such as the Holarctic and Indo-Pacific realms. Quantitative comparison suggests strong associations among different groups—plants showed a higher congruence with ants than with tetrapods. These results underscore the wide congruence of diverse distribution patterns across the tree of life and the similarities shared by insects and plants that are not captured by tetrapod groups. Our analysis highlights the importance of developing global biogeographic maps for insect groups to obtain a more comprehensive geographic picture of life on Earth.

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Generalized mutualisms promote range expansion in both plant and ant partners

Cited by 6 publications

References 94 publications

Fitness trade-offs and the origins of endosymbiosis

Fitness trade-offs and the origins of endosymbiosis

Coevolutionary hotspots favour dispersal and fuel biodiversity in mutualistic landscapes under environmental changes

Global biogeographic regions for ants have complex relationships with those for plants and tetrapods

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