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Ecophysiological differentiation between life stages in filmy ferns (Hymenophyllaceae)

View ORCID ProfileJoel H. Nitta, James E. Watkins Jr., View ORCID ProfileN. Michele Holbrook, View ORCID ProfileTristan W. Wang, View ORCID ProfileCharles C. Davis
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.12.435213
Joel H. Nitta
1Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Harvard University Herbaria, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 USA
4Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 2-11-16 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan
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  • For correspondence: joelnitta@gmail.com
James E. Watkins Jr.
2Department of Biology, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, New York 13346 USA
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N. Michele Holbrook
1Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Harvard University Herbaria, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 USA
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Tristan W. Wang
1Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Harvard University Herbaria, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 USA
3Section of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853 USA
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Charles C. Davis
1Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Harvard University Herbaria, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 USA
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Abstract

Desiccation tolerance was a key trait that allowed plants to colonize land. However, little is known about the transition from desiccation tolerant non-vascular plants to desiccation sensitive vascular ones. Filmy ferns (Hymenophyllaceae) represent a useful system to investigate how water-stress strategies differ between non-vascular and vascular stages within a single organism because they have vascularized sporophytes and nonvascular gametophytes that are each capable of varying degrees of desiccation tolerance. To explore this, we surveyed sporophytes and gametophytes of 19 species (22 taxa including varieties) of filmy ferns on Moorea (French Polynesia) and used chlorophyll fluorescence to measure desiccation tolerance and light responses. We conducted phylogenetically informed analyses to identify differences in physiology between life stages and growth habits. Gametophytes had similar or less desiccation tolerance (ability to recover from 2 d desiccation at -86 MPa) and lower photosynthetic optima (maximum electron transport rate of photosystem II and light level at 95% of that rate) than sporophytes. Epiphytes were more tolerant of desiccation than terrestrial species in both life stages. Despite their lack of greater physiological tolerances, gametophytes of several species occurred over a wider elevational range than conspecific sporophytes. Our results demonstrate that filmy fern gametophytes and sporophytes differ in their physiology and niche requirements, and point to the importance of microhabitat in shaping the evolution of water-use strategies in vascular plants.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • Revise manuscript after first round of reviews (https://github.com/joelnitta/moorea_filmies/commit/dc21f212643968f84ddb0ec814467b8eb6871176)

  • https://figshare.com/s/d6349abf01a3756a5aae

  • https://github.com/joelnitta/moorea_filmies

  • https://hub.docker.com/r/joelnitta/moorea_filmies

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted May 06, 2021.
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Ecophysiological differentiation between life stages in filmy ferns (Hymenophyllaceae)
Joel H. Nitta, James E. Watkins Jr., N. Michele Holbrook, Tristan W. Wang, Charles C. Davis
bioRxiv 2021.03.12.435213; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.12.435213
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Ecophysiological differentiation between life stages in filmy ferns (Hymenophyllaceae)
Joel H. Nitta, James E. Watkins Jr., N. Michele Holbrook, Tristan W. Wang, Charles C. Davis
bioRxiv 2021.03.12.435213; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.12.435213

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