Abstract
Global change can greatly affect plant populations both directly by influencing growing conditions and indirectly by maternal effects on development of offspring. More information is needed on transgenerational effects of global change on plants and their interactions with pathogens. The current study assessed potential maternal effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment on performance and disease susceptibility of first-generation offspring of the Mediterranean legume Onobrychis crista-galli. Mother plants were grown at three CO2 concentrations, and the study focused on their offspring that were raised under common ambient climate and CO2. In addition, progeny were exposed to natural infection by the fungal pathogen powdery mildew. In one out of 3 years, offspring of high-CO2 treatments (440 and 600 ppm) had lower shoot biomass and reproductive output than offspring of low-CO2 treatment (280 ppm). Disease severity in a heavy-infection year was higher in high-CO2 than in low-CO2 offspring. However, some of the findings on maternal effects changed when the population was divided into two functionally diverging plant types distinguishable by flower color (pink, Type P; white, Type W). Disease severity in a heavy-infection year was higher in high-CO2 than in low-CO2 progeny in the more disease-resistant (Type P), but not in the more susceptible plant type (Type W). In a low-infection year, maternal CO2 treatments did not differ in disease severity. Mother plants of Type P exposed to low CO2 produced larger seeds than all other combinations of CO2 and plant type, which might contribute to higher offspring performance. This study showed that elevated CO2 potentially exerts environmental maternal effects on performance of progeny and, notably, also on their susceptibility to natural infection by a pathogen. Maternal effects of global change might differently affect functionally divergent plant types, which could impact population fitness and alter plant communities.
Highlights
Research during past decades has shown that atmospheric CO2enrichment influences a wide range of plant processes at the species, population, and community level
This study showed that elevated CO2 potentially exerts environmental maternal effects on performance of progeny and, notably, on their susceptibility to natural infection by a pathogen
When plant types were disregarded maternal CO2 had a significant impact on offspring biomass and fruit production and on disease severity
Summary
Research during past decades has shown that atmospheric CO2enrichment influences a wide range of plant processes at the species, population, and community level. This includes growth and reproduction, biomass production, carbon sequestration, and shifts in community composition and species diversity (Körner, 2006). In a majority of studies, elevated CO2 significantly affected plant-pathogen relationships by either increasing or decreasing infection rate and disease severity (see e.g., Chakraborty et al, 2000; Mitchell et al, 2003; Mcelrone et al, 2005; Plessl et al, 2007). The maternal environment can affect traits in the mother plant that influence offspring trait-expression (Galloway, 2005), e.g., by inherited epigenetic modifications (Molinier et al, 2006)
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