Abstract
AimsWe investigated whether individuals of Silene paradoxa L., grown in serpentine and non-serpentine soils, displayed variation in functional traits and adaptive strategies together with a differentiation of the gene pool. We hypothesised that individuals growing in serpentine sites may be exposed to a higher degree of stress, resulting in measurable differences in leaf traits and adaptive strategies, and as well that the differences in the soil type were associated with a genetic process of differentiation.MethodsWe analysed a specific set of leaf functional traits of populations of S. paradoxa grown on serpentine and non-serpentine soils. Furthermore, DNA-fingerprinting techniques were used to further dissect the emergence of genetic processes of differentiation linked to the different soil types.ResultsWe detected a relevant intraspecific trait variation in S. paradoxa, with the populations from serpentine sites significantly polarised towards the stress-tolerant adaptive strategy. This polarisation came with a shift in gene pool selection, even if we did not detect quantitative differences in the genetic diversity or evidence of genetic drift.ConclusionsThe results indicate that particular edaphic conditions acted on the selection of some regions of the speciesâ genome, independently of the site, with various portions of the genome being exclusive to or prevalent in the serpentine or non-serpentine populations.
Highlights
Different environments in natural landscapes can exert divergent selection on plant species (Sakaguchi et al 2017)
The results indicate that particular edaphic conditions acted on the selection of some regions of the speciesâ genome, independently of the site, with various portions of the genome being exclusive to or prevalent in the serpentine or non-serpentine populations
Serpentine outcrops are chemically extreme substrate, extraordinarily challenging for plant life, and considered to be real âecological islandsâ in a sea of normal soils (LefĂšbvre and Vernet 1990). They are characterised by high concentrations of trace elements, along with other edaphic constraints, including high Mg concentration, low Ca/Mg ratio, high pH values, and heat stress (Brooks 1987; Gonnelli and Renella 2012; Kazakou et al 2008; Rajakaruna and Boyd 2009)
Summary
Different environments in natural landscapes can exert divergent selection on plant species (Sakaguchi et al 2017). Serpentine outcrops are chemically extreme substrate, extraordinarily challenging for plant life, and considered to be real âecological islandsâ in a sea of normal soils (LefĂšbvre and Vernet 1990) Worldwide distributed, they are characterised by high concentrations of trace elements (namely Ni, Co, and Cr), along with other edaphic constraints, including high Mg concentration, low Ca/Mg ratio, high pH values, and heat stress (Brooks 1987; Gonnelli and Renella 2012; Kazakou et al 2008; Rajakaruna and Boyd 2009). These differences may be reflected in genetic (or more often multi-genetic) differentiation among serpentine and non-serpentine populations (Von Wettberg et al 2014), as shown in the case of Arabidopsis lyrata (L.) O'Kane & Al-Shehbaz, in which a large number of genetic differences were found between populations from serpentine and non-serpentine soils (Turner et al 2010)
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