Dataset Information

No evidence for local adaptation and an epigenetic underpinning in native and non-native ruderal plant species in Germany.

ABSTRACT: Many invasive species have rapidly adapted to different environments in their new ranges. This is surprising, as colonization is usually associated with reduced genetic variation. Heritable phenotypic variation with an epigenetic basis may explain this paradox.Here, we assessed the contribution of DNA methylation to local adaptation in native and naturalized non-native ruderal plant species in Germany. We reciprocally transplanted offspring from natural populations of seven native and five non-native plant species between the Konstanz region in the south and the Potsdam region in the north of Germany. Before the transplant, half of the seeds were treated with the demethylation agent zebularine. We recorded survival, flowering probability, and biomass production as fitness estimates.Contrary to our expectations, we found little evidence for local adaptation, both among the native and among the non-native plant species. Zebularine treatment had mostly negative effects on overall plant performance, regardless of whether plants were local or not, and regardless of whether they were native or non-native. Synthesis. We conclude that local adaptation, at least at the scale of our study, plays no major role in the success of non-native and native ruderal plants. Consequently, we found no evidence yet for an epigenetic basis of local adaptation.

SUBMITTER: Herden J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6745855 | biostudies-other | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

ACCESS DATA

Publications

No evidence for local adaptation and an epigenetic underpinning in native and non-native ruderal plant species in Germany.

Herden Jasmin J Eckert Silvia S Stift Marc M Joshi Jasmin J van Kleunen Mark M

Ecology and evolution 20190806 17

Many invasive species have rapidly adapted to different environments in their new ranges. This is surprising, as colonization is usually associated with reduced genetic variation. Heritable phenotypic variation with an epigenetic basis may explain this paradox.Here, we assessed the contribution of DNA methylation to local adaptation in native and naturalized non-native ruderal plant species in Germany. We reciprocally transplanted offspring from natural populations of seven native and five non-n ...[more]

PMID: 31534665

Similar Datasets

Project description:Supergeneralists, defined as species that interact with multiple groups of species in ecological networks, can act as important connectors of otherwise disconnected species subsets. In Brazil, there are two supergeneralist bees: the honeybee Apis mellifera, a non-native species, and Trigona spinipes, a native stingless bee. We compared the role of both species and the effect of geographic and local factors on networks by addressing three questions: 1) Do both species have similar abundance and interaction patterns (degree and strength) in plant-bee networks? 2) Are both species equally influential to the network structure (nestedness, connectance, and plant and bee niche overlap)? 3) How are these species affected by geographic (altitude, temperature, precipitation) and local (natural vs. disturbed habitat) factors? We analyzed 21 plant-bee weighted interaction networks, encompassing most of the main biomes in Brazil. We found no significant difference between both species in abundance, in the number of plant species with which each bee species interacts (degree), and in the sum of their dependencies (strength). Structural equation models revealed the effect of A. mellifera and T. spinipes, respectively, on the interaction network pattern (nestedness) and in the similarity in bee's interactive partners (bee niche overlap). It is most likely that the recent invasion of A. mellifera resulted in its rapid settlement inside the core of species that retain the largest number of interactions, resulting in a strong influence on nestedness. However, the long-term interaction between native T. spinipes and other bees most likely has a more direct effect on their interactive behavior. Moreover, temperature negatively affected A. mellifera bees, whereas disturbed habitats positively affected T. spinipes. Conversely, precipitation showed no effect. Being positively (T. spinipes) or indifferently (A. mellifera) affected by disturbed habitats makes these species prone to pollinate plant species in these areas, which are potentially poor in pollinators.

Project description: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.

Project description:Water availability strongly influences the survival, growth, and reproduction of most terrestrial plant species. Experimental evidence has well documented the effect of changes in total amount of water availability on non-native vs. native plants. However, little is known about how fluctuations in water availability affect these two groups, although more extreme fluctuations in water availability increasingly occur with prolonged drought and extreme precipitation events. Here, we grew seven non-native and seven native plant species individually in the greenhouse. Then, we exposed them to four watering treatments, each treatment with the same total amount of water, but with different divisions: W1 (added water 16 times with 125 mL per time), W2 (8 times, 250 mL per time), W3 (4 times, 500 mL per time), and W4 (2 times, 1000 mL per time). We found that both non-native and native plants produced the most biomass under medium frequency/magnitude watering treatments (W2 and W3). Interestingly, non-native plants produced 34% more biomass with the infrequent, substantial watering treatment (W4) than with frequent, minor watering treatment (W1), whereas native plants showed opposite patterns, producing 26% more biomass with W1 than with W4. Differences in the ratio of root to shoot under few/large and many/small watering treatments of non-native vs. native species probably contributed to their different responses in biomass production. Our results advance the current understanding of the effect of water availability on non-native plants, which are affected not only by changes in amount of water availability but also by fluctuations in water availability. Furthermore, our results indicate that an increased few/large precipitation pattern expected under climate change conditions might further promote non-native plant invasions. Future field experiments with multiple phylogenetically controlled pairs of non-native and native species will be required to enhance our understanding of how water availability fluctuations impact on non-native invasions.

Project description:Paeonia (Paeoniaceae), a culturally and economically important plant genus, has an isolated taxonomy while the evolution of this genus is unclear. A plant species endemic to southwest China, Paeonia mairei is precious germplasm for evolution-related research and cultivar improvement, and its conservation is urgent. However, little is known about its patterns of habitat distribution and responses to climate change. Using 98 occurrence sites and data of 19 bioclimatic variables, we conducted principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis to delineate different climatic populations. Maximum entropy algorithm (MaxEnt) was applied to each population to evaluate the importance of environmental variables in shaping their distribution, and to identify distribution shifts under different climate change scenarios. We also applied MaxEnt to all of the P. mairei presence sites (P_Whole) to evaluate the need to construct separate species distribution models for separate populations rather than a common approach by treating them as a whole. Our results show that local adaptation exists within the distribution range of P. mairei and that all presence sites were clustered into a western population (P_West) and an eastern population (P_East). Two variables (precipitation of the driest month and temperature seasonality) are important when shaping the distribution of P_West, and another two variables (mean diurnal range and mean temperature of the wettest quarter) are important for P_East. Both populations are likely to shift upward under climate change, while P_East may lose most current suitable areas while P_West may not. P_Whole produced a narrower area compared to the combination of P_West and P_East but a suitable area (south Chongqing) may have been missed in the prediction. Accordingly, a population-based approach in constructing a species distribution model is needed to provide a detailed appreciation of the distribution of P. mairei, allowing for a population-based conservation strategy. In this case, it could include assisted migration to new and suitable distribution areas for P_West and in situ conservation in high elevation regions for P_East. The results of our study could be a useful reference for implementing the long-term conservation and further research of P. mairei.

Dataset Information

No evidence for local adaptation and an epigenetic underpinning in native and non-native ruderal plant species in Germany.

Publications

No evidence for local adaptation and an epigenetic underpinning in native and non-native ruderal plant species in Germany.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets