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Climate and symbioses with ants modulate leaf/stem scaling in epiphytes

In most seed plants, leaf size is isometrically related to stem cross-sectional area, a relationship referred to as Corner’s rule. When stems or leaves acquire a new function, for instance in ant-plant species with hollow stems occupied by ants, their scaling is expected to change. Here we use a lin...

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Autores principales: Chomicki, Guillaume, Renner, Susanne S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6385368/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30796304
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-39853-4
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author Chomicki, Guillaume
Renner, Susanne S.
author_facet Chomicki, Guillaume
Renner, Susanne S.
author_sort Chomicki, Guillaume
collection PubMed
description In most seed plants, leaf size is isometrically related to stem cross-sectional area, a relationship referred to as Corner’s rule. When stems or leaves acquire a new function, for instance in ant-plant species with hollow stems occupied by ants, their scaling is expected to change. Here we use a lineage of epiphytic ant-plants to test how the evolution of ant-nesting structures in species with different levels of symbiotic dependence has impacted leaf/stem scaling. We expected that leaf size would correlate mostly with climate, while stem diameter would change with domatium evolution. Using a trait dataset from 286 herbarium specimens, field and greenhouse observations, climatic data, and a range of phylogenetic-comparative analyses, we detected significant shifts in leaf/stem scaling, mirroring the evolution of specialized symbioses. Our analyses support both predictions, namely that stem diameter change is tied to symbiosis evolution (ant-nesting structures), while leaf size is independently correlated with rainfall variables. Our study highlights how independent and divergent selective pressures can alter allometry. Because shifts in scaling relationships can impact the costs and benefits of mutualisms, studying allometry in mutualistic interactions may shed unexpected light on the stability of cooperation among species.
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spelling pubmed-63853682019-02-27 Climate and symbioses with ants modulate leaf/stem scaling in epiphytes Chomicki, Guillaume Renner, Susanne S. Sci Rep Article In most seed plants, leaf size is isometrically related to stem cross-sectional area, a relationship referred to as Corner’s rule. When stems or leaves acquire a new function, for instance in ant-plant species with hollow stems occupied by ants, their scaling is expected to change. Here we use a lineage of epiphytic ant-plants to test how the evolution of ant-nesting structures in species with different levels of symbiotic dependence has impacted leaf/stem scaling. We expected that leaf size would correlate mostly with climate, while stem diameter would change with domatium evolution. Using a trait dataset from 286 herbarium specimens, field and greenhouse observations, climatic data, and a range of phylogenetic-comparative analyses, we detected significant shifts in leaf/stem scaling, mirroring the evolution of specialized symbioses. Our analyses support both predictions, namely that stem diameter change is tied to symbiosis evolution (ant-nesting structures), while leaf size is independently correlated with rainfall variables. Our study highlights how independent and divergent selective pressures can alter allometry. Because shifts in scaling relationships can impact the costs and benefits of mutualisms, studying allometry in mutualistic interactions may shed unexpected light on the stability of cooperation among species. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-02-22 /pmc/articles/PMC6385368/ /pubmed/30796304 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-39853-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Chomicki, Guillaume
Renner, Susanne S.
Climate and symbioses with ants modulate leaf/stem scaling in epiphytes
title Climate and symbioses with ants modulate leaf/stem scaling in epiphytes
title_full Climate and symbioses with ants modulate leaf/stem scaling in epiphytes
title_fullStr Climate and symbioses with ants modulate leaf/stem scaling in epiphytes
title_full_unstemmed Climate and symbioses with ants modulate leaf/stem scaling in epiphytes
title_short Climate and symbioses with ants modulate leaf/stem scaling in epiphytes
title_sort climate and symbioses with ants modulate leaf/stem scaling in epiphytes
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6385368/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30796304
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-39853-4
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