Protection against insect predation during fruit development: the role of fleshy fruit wings of three species of Zygophyllum in the cold desert of Central Asia

Kaiqing Xie; Juan Qiu; Jannathan Mamut; Yuting Li; Dunyan Tan

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1267714

Protection against insect predation during fruit development: the role of fleshy fruit wings of three species of Zygophyllum in the cold desert of Central Asia

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Nov 14:14:1267714. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1267714. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Kaiqing Xie^{1

2}, Juan Qiu², Jannathan Mamut^{1

2}, Yuting Li², Dunyan Tan²

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Western Arid Region Grassland Resources and Ecology, College of Grassland Sciences, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Ürümqi, China.
² Xinjiang Key Laboratory for Ecological Adaptation and Evolution of Extreme Environment Biology, College of Life Sciences, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Ürümqi, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Fruit wings serve various ecological functions, including facilitating wind dispersal, providing physical protection to seeds, and regulating seed germination. While many studies have reported the role of fruit wings in plants, little is known about their protective function during fruit development.

Methods: In this study, winged fruits damaged by insects in natural populations of three Zygophyllum species (Z. potaninii, Z. lehmannianum and Z. macropterum) were investigated. We measured and compared the percentage of damaged winged fruits, seed set, seed mass, seed germination, and seedling growth of different insect herbivory categories.

Results: The results revealed that the percentage of winged fruits with damaged wings only (low predation) was significantly higher than that of with damaged both fruit wings and fruit bodies (high predation). Furthermore, winged fruits with low predation had significant higher seed set, seed mass, seed germination, and dry mass and relative growth rate (RGR) in the seedlings which grown from the seeds, than that from winged fruits with high predation.

Discussion: These results demonstrate that the presence of the fruit wings may provide protection for the seeds to alleviate harm from insect predation before dispersal. These findings provide new insights into the function of fruit wings and the reproductive strategies of desert plants.

Keywords: Zygophyllum; fruit wings; insect herbivory; protective function; seed development; seedling growth.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32071668), the Natural Science Foundation of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China (2022D01E49), the Grant of Innovation Environment Construction of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China (PT2315), and the Xinjiang Agricultural University Graduate Research and Innovation Project (XJAUGRI2020013).