Heritability of early growth traits and their plasticity in 14 woody species of Chinese subtropical forest
Heritability of early growth traits and their plasticity in 14 woody species of Chinese subtropical forest
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DOI：
10.1093/jpe/rtw086
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发表时间：
2017-02
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Xueqin Zeng;W. Durka;E. Welk;M. Fischer
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Xueqin Zeng;W. Durka;E. Welk;M. Fischer
AIMS植物性状的遗传变异是未来适应性进化的原材料。它的程度可以根据已知亲缘关系的实验植物的表现来估计为遗传力，例如母系半同胞种子家。虽然有相当多的草本植物和重要的商业树木的遗传力信息，但对天然亚热带森林的木本物种知之甚少。此外，对于采用r策略或K策略的物种，对于分布范围比稀有物种更大的常见物种，或者对于更接近分布范围中心的种群，遗传力是否更高还是个未知数。方法对中国亚热带森林中14种木本植物，收集13~38个母本种子家系，测定种子大小，在1个或1个以上的良性育苗环境中进行重复生长，7个月后测量树干直径和株高。对于不同的物种来说，重要的发现是，在更温和的环境中，植物长出了1.8-8.1倍的高度。对于所有14种植物，两个苗圃的种子大小、茎粗和株高在种子科之间的差异(因此遗传力)是显著的(P<；0.001水平的例外很少)。此外，苗圃对所有物种的茎粗和株高的显著互作(P<；0.001)表明这些性状的可塑性具有显著的遗传力。多元回归分析表明，繁殖年龄较高、木材密度较高的树种遗传力较高(表明K策略的性状)，但比叶面积较高的树种遗传力也较高(这是一种指示r策略的性状)。此外，范围大的物种的遗传力较高，而遗传力与研究区域到研究物种的范围边缘的距离之间没有显著的关系。总之，检测到的大遗传力估计表明，亚热带森林树木的植物性能及其可塑性的进化具有相当大的潜力。此外，我们的研究表明，比较不同母本种子科植物的简单方法对于解决迄今未被研究的物种的进化生态学问题是有价值的。
Aims Genetic variation in plant traits represents the raw material for future adaptive evolution. Its extent can be estimated as heritability based on the performance of experimental plants of known relatedness, such as maternal half-sib seed families. While there is considerable heritability information for herbaceous plants and commercially important trees, little is known for woody species of natural subtropical forest. Moreover, it is open whether heritability is higher for species with r- or K-strategies, for more common species with larger distribution ranges than for rarer ones, or for populations closer to the centres of distributional ranges. Methods For 14 woody species in Chinese subtropical forest, we collected 13–38 maternal seed families, assessed seed size, grew replicates of each seed family in one more and one less benign nursery environment and measured stem diameter and plant height after 7 months. Important findings For the different species, plants grew 1.8–8.1 times taller in the more benign environment. For all 14 species, variation between seed families (and thus heritability) was significant (with very few exceptions at the P < 0.001 level) for seed size and for stem diameter and plant height in both nurseries. Moreover, significant seed family by nursery interactions for stem diameter and plant height for all species (P < 0.001) indicated significant heritability for plasticity in these traits. Multiple regression analysis suggests that heritabilities were higher for species with higher age at reproduction and higher wood density (traits indicating a K strategy) but also for species with higher specific leaf area (a trait rather indicating an r strategy). Furthermore, heritabilities were higher for species with larger range sizes, while there was no significant relationship between heritabilities and the distance of the study area to the range margins of our study species. In conclusion, the detected large heritability estimates suggest considerable potential for the evolution of plant performance and its plasticity for trees of subtropical forest. Moreover, our study shows that the simple method of comparing plants of different maternal seed families is valuable to address evolutionary ecological questions for so far understudied species.