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Elevated temperature drives a shift from selfing to outcrossing in the insect-pollinated legume, faba bean (Vicia faba)
- Source :
- Journal of Experimental Botany
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- Oxford University Press, 2016.
-
Abstract
- Highlight We show for the first time that abiotic stress during flowering can dramatically increase the proportion of progeny produced by outcrossing in a mixed-mating, insect-pollinated plant.<br />Climate change can threaten the reproductive success of plants, both directly, through physiological damage during increasingly extreme weather events, and indirectly, through disruption of plant–pollinator interactions. To explore how plant–pollinator interactions are modified by extreme weather, we exposed faba bean (Vicia faba) plants to elevated temperature for 5 d during flowering, simulating a heatwave. We then moved the plants to flight cages with either bumblebees or no pollinators, or to two field sites, where plants were enclosed in mesh bags or pollinated by wild insect communities. We used a morphological marker to quantify pollen movement between experimental plants. There was a substantial increase in the level of outcrossing by insect pollinators following heat stress. Proportion outcrossed seed increased from 17 % at control temperature, to 33 % following heat stress in the flight cages, and from 31 % to 80 % at one field site, but not at the other (33 % to 32 %). Abiotic stress can dramatically shift the relative contributions of cross- and self-pollination to reproduction in an insect pollinated plant. The resulting increases in gene flow have broad implications for genetic diversity and functioning of ecosystems, and may increase resilience by accelerating the selection of more stress-tolerant genotypes.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Crops, Agricultural
Hot Temperature
Insecta
Physiology
autogamy
Climate Change
Allogamy
Outcrossing
Plant Science
Biology
medicine.disease_cause
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
heat stress
insect pollination
Pollinator
extreme weather
Pollen
medicine
Animals
Pollination
plant–pollinator interactions
Reproductive success
Abiotic stress
Reproduction
fungi
Selfing
food and beverages
15. Life on land
Vicia faba
plant–climate interactions
Agronomy
13. Climate action
010606 plant biology & botany
Research Paper
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14602431 and 00220957
- Volume :
- 68
- Issue :
- 8
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Experimental Botany
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....3f9f17032f9567e78f2244b16f39d128