ArticleAnnals of botany2016
The role of pollinators in the evolution of corolla shape variation, disparity and integration in a highly diversified plant family with a conserved floral bauplan.
Article in Annals of botany, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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23 citing papers in PubMed, 73 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Selection maintains a nonadaptive floral polyphenism.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- Potential of reproductive traits in functional ecology: A quantitative comparison of variability in floral, fruit, and leaf traits.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Pollinator Proboscis Length Plays a Key Role in Floral Integration of Honeysuckle Flowers (Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Honey DNA metabarcoding revealed foraging resource partitioning between Korean native and introduced honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae).Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Reconstructing an historical pollination syndrome: keel flowers.BMC ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Evolution of Bird and Insect Flower Traits inFrontiers in plant science · 2021Article
- Within-individual phenotypic plasticity in flowers fosters pollination niche shift.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Modularity and evolution of flower shape: the role of function, development, and spandrels in Erica.The New phytologist · 2020Article
- A theoretical morphological model for quantitative description of the three-dimensional floral morphology in water lily (Nymphaea).PloS one · 2020Article
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- Morphological Analysis of Size and Shape (MASS): An integrative software program for morphometric analyses of leaves.Applications in plant sciences · 2019Article
- Honeybees prefer novel insect-pollinated flower shapes over bird-pollinated flower shapes.Current zoology · 2019Article
- A comparison of coffee floral traits under two different agricultural practices.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Characterization of microsatellite markers forApplications in plant sciences · 2018Article
- Arabidopsis phenotyping through geometric morphometrics.GigaScience · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimsBrassicaceae is one of the most diversified families in the angiosperms. However, most species from this family exhibit a very similar floral bauplan. In this study, we explore the Brassicaceae floral morphospace, examining how corolla shape variation (an estimation of developmental robustness), integration and disparity vary among phylogenetically related species. Our aim is to check whether these floral attributes have evolved in this family despite its apparent morphological conservation, and to test the role of pollinators in driving this evolution.
methodsUsing geometric morphometric tools, we calculated the phenotypic variation, disparity and integration of the corolla shape of 111 Brassicaceae taxa. We subsequently inferred the phylogenetic relationships of these taxa and explored the evolutionary lability of corolla shape. Finally, we sampled the pollinator assemblages of every taxon included in this study, and determined their pollination niches using a modularity algorithm. We explore the relationship between pollination niche and the attributes of corolla shape. KEY
resultsPhylogenetic signal was weak for all corolla shape attributes. All taxa had generalized pollination systems. Nevertheless, they belong to different pollination niches. There were significant differences in corolla shape among pollination niches even after controlling for the phylogenetic relationship of the plant taxa. Corolla shape variation and disparity was significantly higher in those taxa visited mostly by nocturnal moths, indicating that this pollination niche is associated with a lack of developmental robustness. Corolla integration was higher in those taxa visited mostly by hovering long-tongued flies and long-tongued large bees.
conclusionsCorolla variation, integration and disparity were evolutionarily labile and evolved very recently in the evolutionary history of the Brassicaceae. These floral attributes were strongly related to the pollination niche. Even in a plant clade having a very generalized pollination system and exhibiting a conserved floral bauplan, pollinators can drive the evolution of important developmental attributes of corolla shape.
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