Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1007/s11692-021-09544-y
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Is there more to within-plant variation in seed size than developmental noise?
Author Pélabon, C.; De Giorgi, F.; Opedal, Ø.H.; Bolstad, G.H.; Raunsgard, A.; Armbruster, W.S.
Source Titel Evolutionary Biology
Year 2021
Department iDiv; PHYDIV
Volume 48
Issue 3
Page From 366
Page To 377
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Supplements https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1007%2Fs11692-021-09544-y/MediaObjects/11692_2021_9544_MOESM1_ESM.docx
Keywords Bet-hedging; Seed mass; Fluctuating asymmetry; Development; Seed maturation; Dormancy; Developmental stability; Canalization
Abstract Within-plant variation in seed size may merely reflect developmental instability, or it may be adaptive in facilitating diversifying bet-hedging, that is, production of phenotypically diverse offspring when future environments are unpredictable. To test the latter hypothesis, we analyzed patterns of variation in seed size in 11 populations of the perennial vine Dalechampia scandens grown in a common greenhouse environment. We tested whether population differences in the mean and variation of seed size covaried with environmental predictability at two different timescales. We also tested whether within-plant variation in seed size was correlated with independent measures of floral developmental instability and increased under stressful conditions. Populations differed genetically in the amount of seed-size variation occurring among plants, among infructescences within plants, and among seeds within infructescences. Within-individual variation was not detectably correlated with measures of developmental instability and did not increase under stress, but it increased weakly with short-term environmental unpredictability of precipitation at the source-population site. These results support the hypothesis that greater variation in seed size is adaptive when environmental predictability is low.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=24926
Pélabon, C., De Giorgi, F., Opedal, Ø.H., Bolstad, G.H., Raunsgard, A., Armbruster, W.S. (2021):
Is there more to within-plant variation in seed size than developmental noise?
Evol. Biol. 48 (3), 366 - 377 10.1007/s11692-021-09544-y