PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - David B. Lowry AU - Damian Popovic AU - Darlene J. Brennan AU - Liza M. Holeski TI - Mechanisms of a locally adaptive shift in allocation among growth, reproduction, and herbivore resistance in <em>Mimulus guttatus</em> AID - 10.1101/400523 DP - 2019 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 400523 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/01/19/400523.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/01/19/400523.full AB - Environmental gradients can drive adaptive evolutionary shifts in plant resource allocation among growth, reproduction, and herbivore resistance. However, few studies have attempted to connect these adaptations to underlying physiological and genetic mechanisms. Here, we evaluate potential mechanisms responsible for a coordinated locally adaptive shift between growth, reproduction, and herbivore defense in the yellow monkeyflower, Mimulus guttatus. Through manipulative laboratory experiments we found that gibberellin (GA) growth hormones may play a role in the developmental divergence between perennial and annual ecotypes of M. guttatus. Further, we detected an interaction between a locally adaptive chromosomal inversion, DIV1, and GA addition. This finding is consistent with the inversion contributing to the evolutionary divergence between inland annual and coastal perennial ecotypes by reducing GA biosynthesis/activity in perennials. Finally, we found evidence that the DIV1 inversion is partially responsible for a coordinated shift in the divergence of growth, reproduction, and herbivore resistance traits between coastal perennial and inland annual M. guttatus. The inversion has already been established to have a substantial impact on the life-history shift between long-term growth and rapid reproduction. Here, we demonstrate that the DIV1 inversion also has sizable impacts on both the total abundance and composition of phytochemical compounds involved in herbivore resistance.Author ContributionsDL and DP designed the experiments; DL, DP and DB conducted the experiments; LH conducted the analyses of herbivore resistance compounds; DL and LH wrote the manuscriptWe would like to thank Sol Chavez for assisting with the quantification of PPGs. Seed collections were originally made possible by permission from the state parks of Oregon and California. Funding for this research was provided by Michigan State University through a startup package to DBL.Raw data from experiments will be deposited at Dryad upon publication