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Plasticity to simulated shade is associated with altitude in structured populations of A rabidopsis thaliana
Author(s) -
BOTTO JAVIER F.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
plant, cell and environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.646
H-Index - 200
eISSN - 1365-3040
pISSN - 0140-7791
DOI - 10.1111/pce.12481
Subject(s) - biology , phenotypic plasticity , altitude (triangle) , range (aeronautics) , canopy , population , competition (biology) , botany , shading , ecology , shade tolerance , plasticity , demography , art , visual arts , materials science , geometry , mathematics , physics , sociology , composite material , thermodynamics
Plants compete for photosynthesis light and induce a shade avoidance syndrome ( SAS ) that confers an important advantage in asymmetric competition for light at high canopy densities. Shade plasticity was studied in a greenhouse experiment cultivating A rabidopsis thaliana plants from 15 populations spread across an altitudinal gradient in the northeast area of S pain that contain a high genetic variation into a reduced geographical range. Plants were exposed to sunlight or simulated shade to identify the range of shade plasticity. Fourteen vegetative, flowering and reproductive traits were measured throughout the life cycle. Shade plasticity in flowering time and dry mass was significantly associated with the altitude of population origin. Plants from coastal populations showed higher shade plasticity indexes than those from mountains. The altitudinal variation in flowering leaf plasticity adjusted negatively with average and minimum temperatures, whereas dry mass plasticity was better explained by negative regressions with the average, maximum and minimum temperatures, and by a positive regression with average precipitation of the population origin. The lack of an altitudinal gradient for the widest number of traits suggests that shade light could be a driver explaining the distribution pattern of individuals in smaller geographical scales than those explored here.