Evolutionary ecology of carbon acquisition in plants: kin recognition and niche partitioning in sibling competition

植物碳获取的进化生态学：同胞竞争中的亲缘识别和生态位分配

• 批准号: 183980-2011
• 负责人: Dudley, Susan
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: McMaster University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=569679
• 关键词: Evolutionary; ecology; carbon; acquisition; plants

Plants sense and integrate information, changing their growth and development in response to their environment. Identity recognition is an emerging field in plant ecology, with competitive, reproductive and defensive traits showing plasticity to the identity of neighbours. Evolutionary theory suggests that the ability to identify relatives can increase fitness, since it allows individuals to favour relatives that share their genes. The findings from my lab that group root allocation differs between sibling and stranger groups indicate that plants may have the ability to recognize and favour their relatives. In this research we will look in greater detail at the individual phenotype of plants in sibling/stranger groups to determine whether kin recognition responses can be found in multiple traits: individual root allocation, detailed root morphology and root architecture, and spatial use of the soil by plants in competition. Once we have individual measures for root traits, we can determine the fitness consequences of kin recognition. Kin selection predicts that siblings would be expected to cooperate with each other, and therefore have higher fitness than strangers. A second theory, the niche partitioning hypothesis predicts that because strangers are expected to differ more in niche use than siblings, strangers will compete less than siblings, and therefore have higher fitness than siblings. In plants, these predictions have been tested by growing plants in groups of siblings or strangers, and then measuring performance or fitness. However, results that support both theories are found. If these processes co-occur, then fitness measures cannot provide a definitive test for kin selection. We will test these prediction directly in functional traits associated with competition and resource acquisition. We propose to determine if traits that show kin recognition increase group fitness at the cost of individual fitness, and if any traits show selection consistent with niche partitioning. This research will provide training for 3 Ph.D. students, 3 M.Sc. students, 10-20 undergraduate thesis students, and 10 undergraduate research assistants.

植物感知和整合信息，改变它们的生长和发育，以响应它们的环境。身份识别是植物生态学中的一个新兴领域，具有竞争性、生殖性和防御性特征，对邻居的身份具有可塑性。进化论认为，识别亲属的能力可以提高适应性，因为它允许个体偏爱与自己有共同基因的亲属。我的实验室发现，兄弟姐妹和陌生群体之间的群体根分配不同，这表明植物可能有能力识别和偏爱它们的亲属。在这项研究中，我们将更详细地研究兄弟姐妹/陌生人群体中植物的个体表型，以确定亲属识别反应是否可以在多个性状中找到：个体根分配，详细的根形态和根结构，以及竞争中植物对土壤的空间利用。