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A dominant-negative actin mutation alters corolla tube width and pollinator visitation in Mimulus lewisii.

ABSTRACT: A third of all angiosperm species produce flowers with petals fused into a corolla tube. The various elaborations of corolla tube attributes, such as length, width and curvature, have enabled plants to exploit many specialized pollinator groups. These elaborations often differ dramatically among closely related species, contributing to pollinator shift and pollinator-mediated reproductive isolation and speciation. However, very little is known about the genetic and developmental control of these corolla tube attributes. Here we report the characterization of a semi-dominant mutant in the monkeyflower species Mimulus lewisii, with a substantial decrease in corolla tube width but no change in tube length. This morphological alteration leads to a ˜ 70% decrease in bumblebee visitation rate for the homozygous mutant compared to the wild-type. Through bulk segregant analysis and transgenic experiment, we show that the mutant phenotype is caused by a dominant-negative mutation in an actin gene. This mutation decreases epidermal cell width but not length, and probably also reduces the number of lateral cell divisions. These results suggest a surprising potential role for a 'housekeeping' gene in fine-tuning the development of an ecologically important floral trait.

SUBMITTER: Ding B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5300067 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A dominant-negative actin mutation alters corolla tube width and pollinator visitation in Mimulus lewisii.

Ding Baoqing B Mou Fengjuan F Sun Wei W Chen Shilin S Peng Foen F Bradshaw Harvey D HD Yuan Yao-Wu YW

The New phytologist 20161107 4

A third of all angiosperm species produce flowers with petals fused into a corolla tube. The various elaborations of corolla tube attributes, such as length, width and curvature, have enabled plants to exploit many specialized pollinator groups. These elaborations often differ dramatically among closely related species, contributing to pollinator shift and pollinator-mediated reproductive isolation and speciation. However, very little is known about the genetic and developmental control of these ...[more]

PMID: 28164332

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Project description:Hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) are among the most important pollinators, although they attract less attention than bees. They are usually thought to be rather opportunistic flower visitors, although previous studied demonstrated that they show colour preferences and their nectar feeding is affected by morphological constraints related to flower morphology. Despite the growing appreciation of hoverflies and other non-bee insects as pollinators, there is a lack of community-wide studies of flower visitation by syrphids. The aim of this paper is to provide a detailed analysis of flower visitation patterns in a species rich community of syrphids in a Central European grassland and to evaluate how species traits shape the structure of the plant-hoverfly flower visitation network. We found that different species varied in the level of specialisation, and while some species visited a similar spectre of flowers, others partitioned resources more strongly. There was a consistent difference in both specialisation and flower preferences between three syrphid subfamilies. Eristalinae and Pipizinae were more specialised than Syrphinae. Trait-based analyses showed that relative flower visitation (i) increased with plant height, but most strongly in Eristalinae; (ii) increased with inflorescence size in small species from all three subfamilies, but was independent of inflorescence size in large species of Eristalinae and Syrphinae; and (iii) depended on flower colour, but in a subfamily-specific way. Eristalinae showed the strongest flower colour preferences for white flowers, Pipizinae visited mostly white and yellow flowers, while Syrphinae were less affected by flower colour. Exploration of the structure of the plant-hoverfly flower visitation network showed that the network was both modular and nested. We also found that there were almost no differences in specialisation and relative visitation frequency between males and females. Overall, we showed that flower visitation in syrphids was affected by phylogenetic relatedness, body size of syrphids and several plant traits.

Dataset Information

A dominant-negative actin mutation alters corolla tube width and pollinator visitation in Mimulus lewisii.

Publications

A dominant-negative actin mutation alters corolla tube width and pollinator visitation in Mimulus lewisii.

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