RT Journal Article
T1 Selective pressure along a latitudinal gradient affects subindividual variation in plants
A1 Sobral Bernal, Mª Mar
A1 Guitián Rivera, José
A1 Guitián Rivera, Pablo
A1 Larrinaga, Asier R.
AB Individual plants produce repeated structures such as leaves, flowers or fruits, which, although belonging to the same genotype, are not phenotypically identical. Such subindividual variation reflects the potential of individual genotypes to vary with micro-environmental conditions. Furthermore, variation in organ traits imposes costs to foraging animals such as time, energy and increased predation risk. Therefore, animals that interact with plants may respond to this variation and affect plant fitness. Thus, phenotypic variation within an individual plant could be, in part, an adaptive trait. Here we investigated this idea and we found that subindividual variation of fruit size of Crataegus monogyna, in different populations throughout the latitudinal gradient in Europe, was explained at some extent by the selective pressures exerted by seed-dispersing birds. These findings support the hypothesis that within-individual variation in plants is an adaptive trait selected by interacting animals which may have important implications for plant evolution.
PB PLOS
YR 2013
FD 2013
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/21948
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/21948
LA eng
NO Sobral M, Guitián J, Guitián P, Larrinaga AR (2013) Selective Pressure along a Latitudinal Gradient Affects Subindividual Variation in Plants. PLoS ONE 8(9): e74356. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0074356
NO This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education (project CGL2005-03826) and the European Commission (FEDER program). M.S. was the recipient of a María Barbeito fellowship (Galicia regional government, Spain) and a Fundación Pedro Barrié de la Maza grant. A.R.L. received financial support from the Spanish Research Council (JAEDoc program, partially funded by the European Social Fund) during the preparation of the manuscript
DS Minerva
RD 29 abr 2026