Gene or environment? Species‐specific control of stomatal density and length

Ecology and Evolution

Lirong Zhang¹  Haishan Niu¹  Shiping Wang²  Xiaoxue Zhu³  Caiyun Luo³  Yingnian Li³ 

[1] Department of Resource and Environment, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Institute of Northwest Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, Qinghai, China

关键词: Environmental control;    genetic control;    reciprocal transplant experiment;    stomatal density;    stomatal initiation;    stomatal length;   

DOI  :  10.1002/ece3.233

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Abstract

Stomatal characteristics are used as proxies of paleo-environment. Only a few model species have been used to study the mechanisms of genetic and environmental effects on stomatal initiation. Variation among species has not been quantified. In this paper, results from an in situ reciprocal transplant experiment along an elevation gradient in the northeast Tibetan Plateau are reported, in which the relative effects of genetics (original altitude) and environment (transplant altitude) on stomatal density (SD) and length (SL) were quantified. In Thalictrum alpinum, only the environment significantly influenced SD, with the variance component () of the environment found to be much greater than that of genetics () (). In Kobresia humillis, only genetics significantly influenced SD and SL, with the genetics variance component found to be greater than that of the environment (, for SD). These results suggest that the extent to which genetics and the environment determine stomatal initiation and development is species-specific. This needs to be considered when studying genetic or environmental controls of stomatal initiation, as well as when SD and SL are used as proxies for ancient climate factors (e.g., CO₂ concentration).

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC   
© 2011 The Authors. MicrobiologyOpen published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.