Nectar and floral morphology differ in evolutionary potential in novel pollination environments
Romero-Bravo, Andrés LU
and Castellanos, Maria Clara
(2024)
In New Phytologist
243(2).
p.753-764
- Abstract
Plants can evolve rapidly after pollinator changes, but the response of different floral traits to novel selection can vary. Floral morphology is often expected to show high integration to maintain pollination accuracy, while nectar traits can be more environmentally sensitive. The relative role of genetic correlations and phenotypic plasticity (PP) in floral evolution remains unclear, particularly for nectar traits, and can be studied in the context of recent pollinator changes. Digitalis purpurea shows rapid recent evolution of corolla morphology but not nectar traits following a range expansion with hummingbirds added as pollinators. We use this species to compare PP, heritability, evolvability and integration of floral morphology... (More)
Plants can evolve rapidly after pollinator changes, but the response of different floral traits to novel selection can vary. Floral morphology is often expected to show high integration to maintain pollination accuracy, while nectar traits can be more environmentally sensitive. The relative role of genetic correlations and phenotypic plasticity (PP) in floral evolution remains unclear, particularly for nectar traits, and can be studied in the context of recent pollinator changes. Digitalis purpurea shows rapid recent evolution of corolla morphology but not nectar traits following a range expansion with hummingbirds added as pollinators. We use this species to compare PP, heritability, evolvability and integration of floral morphology and nectar in a common garden. Morphological traits showed higher heritability than nectar traits, and the proximal section of the corolla, which regulates access to nectar and underwent rapid change in introduced populations, presented lower integration than the rest of the floral phenotype. Nectar was more plastic than morphology, driven by highly plastic sugar concentration. Nectar production rate showed high potential to respond to selection. These results explain the differential rapid evolution of floral traits previously observed in this species and show how intrafloral modularity determines variable evolutionary potential in morphological and nectar traits.
(Less)
- author
- Romero-Bravo, Andrés
LU
and Castellanos, Maria Clara
- publishing date
- 2024-07
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- keywords
- evolvability, floral evolution, heritability, integration, plasticity, quantitative genetics
- in
- New Phytologist
- volume
- 243
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 12 pages
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85192376696
- pmid:38714871
- ISSN
- 0028-646X
- DOI
- 10.1111/nph.19780
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2024 New Phytologist Foundation.
- id
- 63290ece-60dd-47ff-8a96-4e189502f684
- date added to LUP
- 2026-04-09 17:04:26
- date last changed
- 2026-06-04 22:42:26
@article{63290ece-60dd-47ff-8a96-4e189502f684,
abstract = {{<p>Plants can evolve rapidly after pollinator changes, but the response of different floral traits to novel selection can vary. Floral morphology is often expected to show high integration to maintain pollination accuracy, while nectar traits can be more environmentally sensitive. The relative role of genetic correlations and phenotypic plasticity (PP) in floral evolution remains unclear, particularly for nectar traits, and can be studied in the context of recent pollinator changes. Digitalis purpurea shows rapid recent evolution of corolla morphology but not nectar traits following a range expansion with hummingbirds added as pollinators. We use this species to compare PP, heritability, evolvability and integration of floral morphology and nectar in a common garden. Morphological traits showed higher heritability than nectar traits, and the proximal section of the corolla, which regulates access to nectar and underwent rapid change in introduced populations, presented lower integration than the rest of the floral phenotype. Nectar was more plastic than morphology, driven by highly plastic sugar concentration. Nectar production rate showed high potential to respond to selection. These results explain the differential rapid evolution of floral traits previously observed in this species and show how intrafloral modularity determines variable evolutionary potential in morphological and nectar traits.</p>}},
author = {{Romero-Bravo, Andrés and Castellanos, Maria Clara}},
issn = {{0028-646X}},
keywords = {{evolvability; floral evolution; heritability; integration; plasticity; quantitative genetics}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{753--764}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{New Phytologist}},
title = {{Nectar and floral morphology differ in evolutionary potential in novel pollination environments}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.19780}},
doi = {{10.1111/nph.19780}},
volume = {{243}},
year = {{2024}},
}