Opposing effects of plant traits on diversification

Bruce Anderson; John Pannell; Sylvain Billiard; Concetta Burgarella; Hugo de Boer; Mathilde Dufay; Andrew J Helmstetter; Marcos Méndez; Sarah P Otto; Denis Roze; Hervé Sauquet; Daniel Schoen; Jürg Schönenberger; Mario Vallejo-Marin; Rosana Zenil-Ferguson; Jos Käfer; Sylvain Glémin

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106362

Opposing effects of plant traits on diversification

iScience. 2023 Mar 9;26(4):106362. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106362. eCollection 2023 Apr 21.

Authors

Bruce Anderson¹, John Pannell², Sylvain Billiard³, Concetta Burgarella⁴, Hugo de Boer⁵, Mathilde Dufay⁶, Andrew J Helmstetter⁷, Marcos Méndez⁸, Sarah P Otto⁹, Denis Roze¹⁰, Hervé Sauquet^{11

12}, Daniel Schoen¹³, Jürg Schönenberger¹⁴, Mario Vallejo-Marin¹⁵, Rosana Zenil-Ferguson¹⁶, Jos Käfer¹⁷, Sylvain Glémin^{15

18}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Botany & Zoology, Stellenbosch Univ., Cape Town, South Africa.
² Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
³ University Lille, CNRS, UMR 8198 - Evo-Eco-Paleo, 59000 Lille, France.
⁴ Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
⁵ Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, 0318 Oslo, Norway.
⁶ CEFE, University Montpellier, CNRS, University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, Ephe, IRD, Montpellier, France.
⁷ FRB - CESAB, 5 Rue de l'École de Médecine, 34000 Montpellier, France.
⁸ Area of Biodiversity and Conservation, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain.
⁹ Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
¹⁰ IRL 3614, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Station Biologique de Roscoff, 29688 Roscoff Cedex, France.
¹¹ National Herbarium of New South Wales, Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia.
¹² Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
¹³ Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
¹⁴ Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
¹⁵ Department of Ecology and Genetics, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
¹⁶ Department of Biology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0225, USA.
¹⁷ Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive UMR 5558, 69622 Villeurbanne, France.
¹⁸ CNRS, Ecosystèmes Biodiversité Evolution (Université de Rennes), 35000 Rennes, France.

Abstract

Species diversity can vary dramatically across lineages due to differences in speciation and extinction rates. Here, we explore the effects of several plant traits on diversification, finding that most traits have opposing effects on diversification. For example, outcrossing may increase the efficacy of selection and adaptation but also decrease mate availability, two processes with contrasting effects on lineage persistence. Such opposing trait effects can manifest as differences in diversification rates that depend on ecological context, spatiotemporal scale, and associations with other traits. The complexity of pathways linking traits to diversification suggests that the mechanistic underpinnings behind their correlations may be difficult to interpret with any certainty, and context dependence means that the effects of specific traits on diversification are likely to differ across multiple lineages and timescales. This calls for taxonomically and context-controlled approaches to studies that correlate traits and diversification.

Keywords: Biological sciences; Evolutionary biology; Evolutionary theories; Plant biology; Plant population biology.

Publication types

Review