ArticleScientific reports2018
The evolution of fruit colour: phylogeny, abiotic factors and the role of mutualists.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. 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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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed.
- Chemical Composition, Biological Activities and Application ofMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Integrating fruit and seed traits to support the conservation of the threatened tree Stephanopodium engleri.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Does the abiotic environment influence the distribution of flower and fruit colors?American journal of botany · 2026Article
- Fruit Traits Reflect Adaptation to Dispersers Along a Tropical Elevational Gradient.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Metabolome and Transcriptome Reveal the Regulatory Mechanism of Anthocyanin Synthesis in Tuber Skin and Flesh ofPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Article
- Why do understoreyEcology and evolution · 2024Article
- Effects of temperature gradient on functional fruit traits: an elevation-for-temperature approach.BMC ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Weak latitudinal trends in reproductive traits of Afromontane forest trees.Annals of botany · 2024Article
- Seed dispersal syndrome predicts ethanol concentration of fruits in a tropical dry forest.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Bird preferences for fruit size, but not color, vary in accordance with fruit traits along a tropical elevational gradient.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Mutualistic coevolution and community diversity favour persistence in metacommunities under environmental changes.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Transcriptome and metabolome analyses of anthocyanin biosynthesis in post-harvest fruits of a full red-type kiwifruit (Frontiers in plant science · 2023Article
- How to approach the study of syndromes in macroevolution and ecology.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Plant carotenoids: recent advances and future perspectives.Molecular horticulture · 2022Review
- Annual precipitation predicts the phylogenetic signal in bat-fruit interaction networks across the Neotropics.Biology letters · 2021Article
- Evolutionary ecology of climacteric and non-climacteric fruits.Biology letters · 2021Article
- Variability and Phylogeny of the Pepper Phytoene Synthase Paralogs PSY1 and PSY2 in Species of Various Capsicum Complexes.Doklady. Biochemistry and biophysics · 2020Article
- The evolution of fruit scent: phylogenetic and developmental constraints.BMC evolutionary biology · 2020Article
- Ultraviolet radiation changes plant color.BMC plant biology · 2020Article
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7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The adaptive significance of fruit colour has been investigated for over a century. While colour can fulfil various functions, the most commonly tested hypothesis is that it has evolved to increase fruit visual conspicuousness and thus promote detection and consumption by seed dispersing animals. However, fruit colour is a complex trait which is subjected to various constraints and selection pressures. As a result, the effect of animal selection on fruit colour are often difficult to identify, and several studies have failed to detect it. Here, we employ an integrative approach to examine what drives variation in fruit colour. We quantified the colour of ripe fruit and mature leaves of 97 tropical plant species from three study sites in Madagascar and Uganda. We used phylogenetically controlled models to estimate the roles of phylogeny, abiotic factors, and dispersal mode on fruit colour variation. Our results show that, independent of phylogeny and leaf coloration, mammal dispersed fruits are greener than bird dispersed fruits, while the latter are redder than the former. In addition, fruit colour does not correlate with leaf colour in the visible spectrum, but fruit reflection in the ultraviolet area of the spectrum is strongly correlated with leaf reflectance, emphasizing the role of abiotic factors in determining fruit colour. These results demonstrate that fruit colour is affected by both animal sensory ecology and abiotic factors and highlight the importance of an integrative approach which controls for the relevant confounding factors.
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