Plant genome size influences stress tolerance of invasive and native plants via plasticity

0533821 - BÚ 2021 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Meyerson, L. A. - Pyšek, Petr - Lučanová, Magdalena - Wigginton, S. - Tran, C.-T. - Cronin, J. T.
Plant genome size influences stress tolerance of invasive and native plants via plasticity.
Ecosphere. Roč. 11, č. 5 (2020), s. 1-20, č. článku e03145. ISSN 2150-8925. E-ISSN 2150-8925
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GX19-28807X
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : plant invasion * genome size * stress tolerance
OECD category: Ecology
Impact factor: 3.171, year: 2020
Method of publishing: Open access
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3145

Plant genome size influences the functional relationships between cellular and whole-plant physiology, but we know little about its importance to plant tolerance of environmental stressors and how it contributes to range limits and invasion success. We used native and invasive lineages of a wetland plant to provide the first experimental test of the Large Genome Constraint Hypothesis (LGCH)—that plants with large genomes are less tolerant of environmental stress and less plastic under stress gradients than plants with small genomes. All plant traits, except stomatal conductance, were influenced by environmental stressors and genome size. Increasing salinity was stressful to plants and affected most plant traits. Notably, biomass in the high-salinity treatment was three to five times lower for the invasive and native lineages, respectively. Moreover, responses to the salinity gradient were generally much stronger in the southern than northern greenhouse. Aboveground biomass increased significantly with genome size for the invasive lineage (43% across genome sizes) but not for the native. Overall, we found mixed support for LGCH and for the first time found that genome size is associated with plasticity, a trait widely regarded as important to invasion success.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0313811