Abstract
AbstractAlong ecological gradients, ecotypes generally evolve as the result of local adaptation to a specific environment to maximize organisms’ fitness. Alongside ecotypic differentiation, phenotypic plasticity, as the ability of a single genotype to produce different phenotypes under different environmental conditions, can also evolve for favouring increased organisms’ performance in different environments. Currently, there is a lack in our understanding of how varying habitats may contribute to the differential contribution of ecotypic differentiation and plasticity in growth versus defence traits. Using reciprocal transplant-common gardens along steep elevation gradients, we evaluated patterns of ecotypic differentiation and phenotypic plasticity of two coexisting but unrelated plant species, Cardamine pratensis and Plantago major. For both species, we observed ecotypic differentiation accompanied by plasticity in growth related traits. Plants grew faster and produced more biomass when placed at low elevation. In contrast, we observed fixed ecotypic differentiation for defence and resistance traits. Generally, low elevation ecotypes produced higher chemical defences regardless of the growing elevation. Yet, some plasticity was observed for specific compounds, such as indole glucosinolates. We speculate that ecotypic differentiation in defence traits is maintained by costs of chemical defence production, while plasticity in growth traits is regulated by temperature driven growth response maximization.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Reference112 articles.
1. Aeschimann D , Lauber K , Moser DM , Theurillat J-P . 2004. Flora alpina: ein Atlas sämtlicher 4500 Gefässpflanzen der Alpen.
2. ECOLOGICAL GENETICS OF AN INDUCED PLANT DEFENSE AGAINST HERBIVORES: ADDITIVE GENETIC VARIANCE AND COSTS OF PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY
3. Costs of Induced Responses and Tolerance to Herbivory in Male and Female Fitness Components of Wild Radish
4. Anderson JT , Inouye DW , McKinney AM , Colautti RI , Mitchell-Olds T . 2012. Phenotypic plasticity and adaptive evolution contribute to advancing flowering phenology in response to climate change. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279, 3843–3852.