10.5061/DRYAD.334765V
Fitzpatrick, Connor
University of Toronto
Mustafa, Zainab
University of Toronto
Viliunas, Joani
University of Toronto
Data from: Soil microbes alter plant fitness under competition and drought
Dryad
dataset
2019
Arabidopsis thaliana
plant-microbe interactions
Capsella bursa-pastoris
genetic correlation
plant immunity
soil microbes
2019-02-08T14:53:08Z
2019-02-08T14:53:08Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.13426
142021 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Plants exist across varying biotic and abiotic environments, including
variation in the composition of soil microbial communities. The ecological
effects of soil microbes on plant communities are well known, whereas less
is known about their importance for plant evolutionary processes. In
particular, the net effects of soil microbes on plant fitness may vary
across environmental contexts and among plant genotypes, setting the stage
for microbially mediated plant evolution. Here we assess the effects of
soil microbes on plant fitness and natural selection on flowering time in
different environments. We performed two experiments in which we grew
Arabidopsis thaliana genotypes replicated in either live or sterilized
soil microbial treatments, and across varying levels of either competition
(isolation, intraspecific competition, or interspecific competition) or
watering (well-watered or drought). We found large effects of competition
and watering on plant fitness as well as the expression and natural
selection of flowering time. Soil microbes increased average plant fitness
under interspecific competition and drought, and shaped the response of
individual plant genotypes to drought. Finally, plant tolerance to either
competition or drought was uncorrelated between soil microbial treatments
suggesting that the plant traits favoured under environmental stress may
depend on the presence of soil microbes. In summary, our experiments
demonstrate that soil microbes can have large effects on plant fitness,
which depend on both the environment and individual plant genotype. Future
work in natural systems is needed for a complete understanding of the
evolutionary importance of interactions between plants and soil
microorganisms.
R_scriptR script used for analyses and production of
figures.AEG_code.Rfull_data_compData from experiment 1. ID = experimental
object identifier; tray = experimental tray in which individual plant was
held; fruit.focal.main = number of fruit on the main shoot of the focal
plant; fruit.focal.second = number of fruit on the secondary shoots of the
focal plant; fruit.comp.main = number of fruit on the main shoot of the
competitor plant; fruit.focal.second = number of fruit on the secondary
shoots of the competitor plant; Counter = fruit counter; flower.time.focal
= date of flower of the focal plant; flower.time.comp = date of flower of
the competitor.full_data_droughtFitness and flowering data for experiment
2. accession = plant genotype; water = watering treatment; microbe =
microbe treatment; replicate = replicate number; tray = experimental tray
in which individual pot was held; shelf = shelf on growth chamber rack;
rack = growth chamber rack; fruit = number of fruit; flowering = Julian
flower date; counter = experimental fruit counter; source = source of seed
stock used in experiment.seed.count.compSeed counts from fruit from
individual genotypes. genotype = plant genotype; mean = mean seed across 5
fruits from 5 individuals.seed.count.droughtAverage seed counts from 5
fruit from 5 individual genotypes. genotype = plant genotype; mean.wet =
mean seed from 5 fruit from 5 individuals in the well watered treatment;
mean.dry = mean seed from 5 fruit from 5 individuals in the drought
treatment.