Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Feb;27(2):e14379.
doi: 10.1111/ele.14379.

Mutualisms drive plant trait evolution beyond interaction-related traits

Gustavo Burin  1 , Laura C E Campbell  2 , Susanne S Renner  3 , E Toby Kiers  4 , Guillaume Chomicki  2
Affiliations

Mutualisms drive plant trait evolution beyond interaction-related traits

Gustavo Burin et al. Ecol Lett. 2024 Feb.

Abstract

Mutualisms have driven the evolution of extraordinary structures and behavioural traits, but their impact on traits beyond those directly involved in the interaction remains unclear. We addressed this gap using a highly evolutionarily replicated system - epiphytes in the Rubiaceae forming symbioses with ants. We employed models that allow us to test the influence of discrete mutualistic traits on continuous non-mutualistic traits. Our findings are consistent with mutualism shaping the pace of morphological evolution, strength of selection and long-term mean of non-mutualistic traits in function of mutualistic dependency. While specialised and obligate mutualisms are associated with slower trait change, less intimate, facultative and generalist mutualistic interactions - which are the most common - have a greater impact on non-mutualistic trait evolution. These results challenge the prevailing notion that mutualisms solely affect the evolution of interaction-related traits via stabilizing selection and instead demonstrate a broader role for mutualisms in shaping trait evolution.

Keywords: ants; macroevolution; mutualism; phylogenetic comparative methods; plants; symbiosis; trait evolution.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Anderson, B. & Johnson, S.D. (2008) The geographical mosaic of coevolution in a plant-pollinator mutualism. Evolution, 62, 220-225.
    1. Anderson, B. & Johnson, S.D. (2009) Geographical covariation and local convergence of flower depth in a guild of fly-pollinated plants. New Phytologist, 182, 533-540.
    1. Anderson, W.R. (1979) Floral conservatism in neo-tropical Malpighiaceae. Biotropica, 11, 219-223.
    1. Barrabé, L., Maggia, L., Pillon, Y., Rigault, F., Mouly, A., Davis, A.P. et al. (2014) New Caledonian lineages of Psychotria (Rubiaceae) reveal different evolutionary histories and the largest documented plant radiation for the archipelago. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 71, 15-35.
    1. Batstone, R.T., Carscadden, K.A., Afkhami, M.E. & Frederickson, M.E. (2018) Using niche breadth theory to explain generalization in mutualisms. Ecology, 99, 1039-1050.

LinkOut - more resources