Natural Selection of Plant Defense Against Herbivores in Native and Non-native Ranges

Núñez‐Farfán, Juan; Valverde, Pedro Luis

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-46012-9_5

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Fruit mass, total plant mass, and maximum height tended to increase with elevation, but not significantly so (Figure ). Previous common garden studies have found that plants from lower elevations are often larger, grow more quickly, and flower earlier and for a longer time, while plants from high elevations have the opposite characteristics, which are likely adaptations to conditions at different elevations (Clausen et al, ; Conover & Schultz, ; Nunez‐Farfan & Schlichting, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Evidence for adaptive responses to historic drought across a native plant species range

Dickman

Pennington

Franks

et al. 2019

Evolutionary Applications

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As climatic conditions change, species will be forced to move or adapt to avoid extinction. Exacerbated by ongoing climate change, California recently experienced a severe and exceptional drought from 2011 to 2017. To investigate whether an adaptive response occurred during this event, we conducted a “resurrection” study of the cutleaf monkeyflower ( Mimulus laciniatus ), an annual plant, by comparing trait means and variances of ancestral seed collections (“pre‐drought”) with contemporary descendant collections (“drought”). Plants were grown under common conditions to test whether this geographically restricted species has the capacity to respond evolutionarily to climate stress across its range. We examined if traits shifted in response to the recent, severe drought and included populations across an elevation gradient, including populations at the low‐ and high‐elevation edges of the species range. We found that time to seedling emergence in the drought generation was significantly earlier than in the pre‐drought generation, a response consistent with drought adaptation. Additionally, trait variation in days to emergence was reduced in the drought generation, which suggests selection or bottleneck events. Days to first flower increased significantly by elevation, consistent with climate adaptation across the species range. Drought generation plants were larger and had greater reproduction, which was likely a carryover effect of earlier germination. These results demonstrate that rapid shifts in trait means and variances consistent with climate adaptation are occurring within populations, including peripheral populations at warm and cold climate limits, of a plant species with a relatively restricted range that has so far not shifted its elevation distribution during contemporary climate change. Thus, rapid evolution may mitigate, at least temporarily, range shifts under global climate change. This study highlights the need for better understanding rapid adaptation as a means for plant communities to cope with extraordinary climate events.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Evidence for adaptive responses to historic drought across a native plant species range

Dickman

Pennington

Franks

et al. 2019

Evolutionary Applications

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“…We expected that plants from Spain, when exposed to the coevolved specialized herbivores of D. stramonium , would suffer more damage than the native plants, based on the hypothesis that under isolation and in the absence of herbivores, non-native plants of D. stramonium would evolve toward lower levels of resistance and defense. In other words, costly defense (whether chemical or physical) is expected to be selected against [ 10 , 12 ] or shift [ 14 , 34 ]. The experimental evidence presented here indicates that non-native plants possess at least comparable levels of resistance to Mexican plants, expressing equivalent levels of the defensive chemicals atropine and scopolamine.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A related question is whether ER spurs evolutionary divergence in resistance and/or tolerance to natural enemies of non-natives in the new range [ 2 , 4 , 7 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. When non-native species possess strong but costly defenses, enemy release is expected to promote selection against genotypes with costly defenses, favoring reallocation of resources, for instance, to increase competitive ability (EICA; [ 13 , 14 ]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Trip Back Home: Resistance to Herbivores of Native and Non-Native Plant Populations of Datura stramonium

Núñez-Farfán,

Velázquez-Márquez,

Torres-García

et al. 2024

Plants

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When colonizing new ranges, plant populations may benefit from the absence of the checks imposed by the enemies, herbivores, and pathogens that regulated their numbers in their original range. Therefore, rates of plant damage or infestation by natural enemies are expected to be lower in the new range. Exposing both non-native and native plant populations in the native range, where native herbivores are present, can be used to test whether resistance mechanisms have diverged between populations. Datura stramonium is native to the Americas but widely distributed in Spain, where populations show lower herbivore damage than populations in the native range. We established experiments in two localities in the native range (Mexico), exposing two native and two non-native D. stramonium populations to natural herbivores. Plant performance differed between the localities, as did the abundance of the main specialist herbivore, Lema daturaphila. In Teotihuacán, where L. daturaphila is common, native plants had significantly more adult beetles and herbivore damage than non-native plants. The degree of infestation by the specialist seed predator Trichobaris soror differed among populations and between sites, but the native Ticumán population always had the lowest level of infestation. The Ticumán population also had the highest concentration of the alkaloid scopolamine. Scopolamine was negatively related to the number of eggs deposited by L. daturaphila in Teotihuacán. There was among-family variation in herbivore damage (resistance), alkaloid content (scopolamine), and infestation by L. daturaphila and T. soror, indicating genetic variation and potential for further evolution. Although native and non-native D. stramonium populations have not yet diverged in plant resistance/constitutive defense, the differences between ranges (and the two experimental sites) in the type and abundance of herbivores suggest that further research is needed on the role of resource availability and adaptive plasticity, specialized metabolites (induced, constitutive), and the relationship between genealogical origin and plant defense in both ranges.

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Plasticity in biomass allocation underlies tolerance to leaf damage in native and non-native populations of Datura stramonium

Liñán-Vigo,

Núñez-Farfán

2024

Oecologia

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An introduction to a novel habitat represents a challenge to plants because they likely would face new interactions and possibly different physical context. When plant populations arrive to a new region free from herbivores, we can expect an evolutionary change in their defense level, although this may be contingent on the type of defense, resistance or tolerance, and cost of defense. Here, we addressed questions on the evolution of tolerance to damage in non-native Spanish populations of Datura stramonium by means of two comparative greenhouse experiments. We found differences in seed production, specific leaf area, and biomass allocation to stems and roots between ranges. Compared to the Mexican native populations of this species, non-native populations produced less seeds despite damage and allocate more biomass to roots and less to stems, and had higher specific leaf area values. Plasticity to leaf damage was similar between populations and no difference in tolerance to damage between native and non-native populations was detected. Costs for tolerance were detected in both regions. Two plasticity traits of leaves were associated with tolerance and were similar between regions. These results suggest that tolerance remains beneficial to plants in the non-native region despite it incurs in fitness costs and that damage by herbivores is low in the non-native region. The study of the underlying traits of tolerance can improve our understanding on the evolution of tolerance in novel environments, free from plants’ specialist herbivores.

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Natural Selection of Plant Defense Against Herbivores in Native and Non-native Ranges

Cited by 4 publications

References 67 publications

Evidence for adaptive responses to historic drought across a native plant species range

Evidence for adaptive responses to historic drought across a native plant species range

A Trip Back Home: Resistance to Herbivores of Native and Non-Native Plant Populations of Datura stramonium

Plasticity in biomass allocation underlies tolerance to leaf damage in native and non-native populations of Datura stramonium

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