Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Photosynthetic innovation broadens the niche within a single species
AU - Lundgren, Marjorie R.
AU - Besnard, Guillaume
AU - Ripley, Brad S.
AU - Lehmann, Caroline E. R.
AU - Chatelet, David S.
AU - Kynast, Ralf G.
AU - Namaganda, Mary
AU - Vorontsova, Maria S.
AU - Hall, Russell C.
AU - Elia, John
AU - Osborne, Colin P.
AU - Christin, Pascal-Antoine
PY - 2015/10
Y1 - 2015/10
N2 - Adaptation to changing environments often requires novel traits, but how such traits directly affect the ecological niche remains poorly understood. Multiple plant lineages have evolved C-4 photosynthesis, a combination of anatomical and biochemical novelties predicted to increase productivity in warm and arid conditions. Here, we infer the dispersal history across geographical and environmental space in the only known species with both C-4 and non-C-4 genotypes, the grass Alloteropsis semialata. While non-C-4 individuals remained confined to a limited geographic area and restricted ecological conditions, C-4 individuals dispersed across three continents and into an expanded range of environments, encompassing the ancestral one. This first intraspecific investigation of C-4 evolutionary ecology shows that, in otherwise similar plants, C-4 photosynthesis does not shift the ecological niche, but broadens it, allowing dispersal into diverse conditions and over long distances. Over macroevolutionary timescales, this immediate effect can be blurred by subsequent specialisation towards more extreme niches.
AB - Adaptation to changing environments often requires novel traits, but how such traits directly affect the ecological niche remains poorly understood. Multiple plant lineages have evolved C-4 photosynthesis, a combination of anatomical and biochemical novelties predicted to increase productivity in warm and arid conditions. Here, we infer the dispersal history across geographical and environmental space in the only known species with both C-4 and non-C-4 genotypes, the grass Alloteropsis semialata. While non-C-4 individuals remained confined to a limited geographic area and restricted ecological conditions, C-4 individuals dispersed across three continents and into an expanded range of environments, encompassing the ancestral one. This first intraspecific investigation of C-4 evolutionary ecology shows that, in otherwise similar plants, C-4 photosynthesis does not shift the ecological niche, but broadens it, allowing dispersal into diverse conditions and over long distances. Over macroevolutionary timescales, this immediate effect can be blurred by subsequent specialisation towards more extreme niches.
KW - Adaptation
KW - Alloteropsis
KW - C-4 photosynthesis
KW - ecological niche
KW - evolution
KW - phylogeography
KW - C-4 PHOTOSYNTHESIS
KW - ALLOTEROPSIS-SEMIALATA
KW - EVOLUTION
KW - PLANTS
KW - GRASSES
KW - CLIMATE
KW - PHOTORESPIRATION
KW - TEMPERATURE
KW - PHYSIOLOGY
KW - PHYLOGENY
U2 - 10.1111/ele.12484
DO - 10.1111/ele.12484
M3 - Journal article
VL - 18
SP - 1021
EP - 1029
JO - Ecology Letters
JF - Ecology Letters
SN - 1461-023X
IS - 10
ER -