RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Strengthened mutualistic adaptation between teosinte and its rhizosphere biota in cold climates
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.04.20.440703
DO 10.1101/2021.04.20.440703
A1 O’Brien, Anna M.
A1 Sawers, Ruairidh J.H.
A1 Gasca-Pineda, Jaime
A1 Baxter, Ivan
A1 Eguiarte, Luis E.
A1 Ross-Ibarra, Jeffrey
A1 Strauss, Sharon Y.
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/04/22/2021.04.20.440703.abstract
AB While abiotic environments consistently shape local adaptation, the strength of local adaptation to biotic interactions may vary more. One theory, COCO (CO-evolutionary Outcomes across Conditionality), predicts it may be strongest where species experience greater stress, because stress increases fitness impacts of species interactions. For example, in plant interactions with rhizosphere biota, positive outcomes increase with stress from low soil fertility, drought and cold.To investigate the influence of abiotic stress gradients on adaptation between plants and rhizosphere biota, we used a greenhouse common garden experiment recombining teosinte, Zea mays ssp. mexicana (wild relative of maize), and rhizosphere biota, collected across a stress gradient (elevational variation in temperature, precipitation, and nutrients).We found stronger local adaptation between teosinte and rhizosphere biota from colder, more stressful sites, as expected by COCO. However, biota from less stressful, warmer sites provided greater average benefits across teosinte populations. Links between plant traits and 20-element profiles of plant leaves explained fitness variation, persisted in the field, were influenced by both plants and biota, and largely reflected patterns of local adaptation.In sum, we uncovered greater local adaptation to biotic interactions in colder sites, and that both plants and rhizosphere biota affect the expression of plant phenotypes.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.