Titel
Parallel Differentiation and Plastic Adjustment of Leaf Anatomy in Alpine Arabidopsis arenosa Ecotypes
Autor*in
Dominik Kaplenig
Department of Botany, University of Innsbruck
Maria Ralser
Department of Botany, University of Innsbruck
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Abstract
Functional and structural adjustments of plants in response to environmental factors, including those occurring in alpine habitats, can result in transient acclimation, plastic phenotypic adjustments and/or heritable adaptation. To unravel repeatedly selected traits with potential adaptive advantage, we studied parallel (ecotypic) and non-parallel (regional) differentiation in leaf traits in alpine and foothill ecotypes of Arabidopsis arenosa. Leaves of plants from eight alpine and eight foothill populations, representing three independent alpine colonization events in different mountain ranges, were investigated by microscopy techniques after reciprocal transplantation. Most traits clearly differed between the foothill and the alpine ecotype, with plastic adjustments to the local environment. In alpine populations, leaves were thicker, with altered proportions of palisade and spongy parenchyma, and had fewer trichomes, and chloroplasts contained large starch grains with less stacked grana thylakoids compared to foothill populations. Geographical origin had no impact on most traits except for trichome and stomatal density on abaxial leaf surfaces. The strong parallel, heritable ecotypic differentiation in various leaf traits and the absence of regional effects suggests that most of the observed leaf traits are adaptive. These trait shifts may reflect general trends in the adaptation of leaf anatomy associated with the colonization of alpine habitats.
Stichwort
adaptationalpine environmentecotypeleaf anatomyparallel evolution
Objekt-Typ
Sprache
Englisch [eng]
Persistent identifier
Erschienen in
Titel
Plants
Band
11
Ausgabe
19
ISSN
2223-7747
Erscheinungsdatum
2022
Publication
MDPI AG
Erscheinungsdatum
2022
Zugänglichkeit
Rechte
Rechteangabe
© 2022 by the authors
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