Genetic distance predicts trait differentiation at the subpopulation but not the individual level in eelgrass,Zostera marina

Abstract

Ecological studies often assume that genetically similar individuals will be more similar in phenotypic traits, such that genetic diversity can serve as a proxy for trait diversity. Here, we explicitly test the relationship between genetic relatedness and trait distance using 40 eelgrass (Zostera marina) genotypes from five sites within Bodega Harbor, CA. We measured traits related to nutrient uptake, morphology, biomass and growth, photosynthesis, and chemical deterrents for all genotypes. We used these trait measurements to calculate a multivariate pairwise trait distance for all possible genotype combinations. We then estimated pairwise relatedness from 11 microsatellite markers. We found significant trait variation among genotypes for nearly every measured trait; however, there was no evidence of a significant correlation between pairwise genetic relatedness and multivariate trait distance among individuals. However, at the subpopulation level (sites within a harbor), genetic (F ST) and trait differentiation were positively correlated. Our work suggests that pairwise relatedness estimated from neutral marker loci is a poor proxy for trait differentiation between individual genotypes. It remains to be seen whether genomewide measures of genetic differentiation or easily measured “master” traits (like body size) might provide good predictions of overall trait differentiation.

Drought affects the coordination of belowground and aboveground resource‐related traits in Solidago canadensis in China

“…In addition, the selection direction of water availability on LMF, LA, RV, RLR, and RMF differed, indicating that the selection differentials of water availability on these traits were significant under different soil moisture conditions (Bo, Shibuya, Yogo, Hara, & Yokozawa, 2001;Du et al, 2016). Environmental differences across a population create varying selection pressures that drive the differentiation of traits, while limiting gene flow within the population and allowing divergence of neutral genetic markers (Abbott et al, 2018). For LMF, LA, and RV, the effect of selection might be the main direction, but for RLR, RMF, LAR, and LS, the effect of selection might be neutralized by genetic drift.…”

“…For LMF, LA, and RV, the effect of selection might be the main direction, but for RLR, RMF, LAR, and LS, the effect of selection might be neutralized by genetic drift. Environmental differences across a population create varying selection pressures that drive the differentiation of traits, while limiting gene flow within the population and allowing divergence of neutral genetic markers (Abbott et al, 2018).…”

Bleaching resistant corals retain heat tolerance following acclimatization to environmentally distinct reefs

“…Given that the first two PCs explained the majority of the variance, phenotypic plasticity of each genet was calculated as the PCA distance between that genet's native vs. cross-transplanted phenotype in two-dimensional trait space (i.e. PC1 vs. PC2), which accounts for correlations among traits (as in (Abbott et al 2018) and is reported as plasticity. Differences in plasticity were tested using a two-way ANOVA with the factors of Species and Origin.…”

Sequential disturbances alter the outcome of inter‐genotypic interactions in a clonal plant

“…Zostera genotypes used in our experiments were collected from Bodega Harbor, CA and cultured in outdoor, flow‐through seawater tanks at the Bodega Marine Laboratory (Abbott et al., 2018; Hughes et al., 2009). It total, we used 39 genotypes to randomly generate 50 unique pairings (see Table S1 for a list of the genotypes used in each pair).…”

“…In northern California, populations of Zostera are genetically diverse (Hughes & Stachowicz, 2009; Kamel et al., 2012; Olsen et al., 2004), this genetic diversity is stable across time (Reynolds et al., 2017), and meadows can have upwards of four unique genotypes interacting within a 10 cm × 10 cm area (Abbott & Stachowicz, 2016). Zostera genotypes differ phenotypically in common gardens (Abbott et al., 2018; Hughes et al., 2009) and competition can lead to the exclusion of genotypes at the local scale (Abbott & Stachowicz, 2016). However, the effects of disturbance in mitigating competitive exclusion among eelgrass genotypes remain unclear (Reusch, 2006).…”