Phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation favor range expansion of a Neotropical palm

Autor(es)

Brancalion, Pedro H. S. ^[1] ; Oliveira, Giancarlo C. X. ^[2] ; Zucchi, Maria I. ^[3] ; Novello, Mariana ^{[4, 3]} ; van Melis, Juliano ^[1] ; Zocchi, Silvio S. ^[5] ; Chazdon, Robin L. ^{[6, 7]} ; Rodrigues, Ricardo R. ^[8]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Luiz de Queiroz Coll Agr, Dept Forest Sci, Av Padua Dias 11, BR-13418900 Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Luiz de Queiroz Coll Agr, Dept Genet, Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

^[3] Agribusiness Technol Dev Sao Paulo APTA, Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

^[4] Univ Estadual Campinas, Inst Biol, Dept Genet & Mol Biol, Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[5] Univ Sao Paulo, Luiz de Queiroz Coll Agr, Dept Math Chem & Stat, Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

^[6] Univ Connecticut, Dept Ecol & Evolutionary Biol, Storrs, CT - USA

^[7] Int Inst Sustainabil, Rio De Janeiro, RJ - Brazil

^[8] Univ Sao Paulo, Luiz de Queiroz Coll Agr, Dept Biol, Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION; v. 8, n. 15, p. 7462-7475, AUG 2018.
• Citações Web of Science: 1

Resumo

One of the most intriguing questions in plant ecology is which evolutionary strategy allows widely distributed species to increase their ecological range and grow in changing environmental conditions. Phenotypic plasticity and local adaptations are major processes governing species range margins, but little is known about their relative contribution for tree species distribution in tropical forest regions. We investigated the relative role of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation in the ecological distribution of the widespread palm Euterpe edulis in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Genetic sampling and experiments were performed in old-growth remnants of two forest types with higher (Seasonal Semideciduous Forests vs. Submontane Rainforest) and lower biogeographic association and environmental similarities (Submontane Rainforest vs. Restinga Forest). We first assessed the molecular genetic differentiation among populations, focusing on the group of loci potentially under selection in each forest, using single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) outliers. Further, we looked for potential adaptive divergence among populations in a common garden experiment and in reciprocal transplants for two plant development phases: seedling establishment and sapling growth. Analysis with outlier loci indicated that all individuals from the Semideciduous Forest formed a single group, while another group was formed by overlapping individuals from Submontane Rainforest and Restinga Forest. Molecular differentiation was corroborated by reciprocal transplants, which yielded strong evidence of local adaptations for seedling establishment in the biogeographically divergent Rainforest and Semideciduous Forest, but not for Restinga Forest and Submontane Rainforest. Phenotypic plasticity for palm seedling establishment favors range expansion to biogeographically related or recently colonized forest types, while persistence in the newly colonized ecosystem may be favored by local adaptations if climatic conditions diverge over time, reducing gene flow between populations. SNPs obtained by next-generation sequencing can help exploring adaptive genetic variation in tropical trees, which impose several challenges to the use of reciprocal transplants. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 13/50718-5 - Restauração ecológica de florestas ciliares, de florestas nativas de produção econômica e de fragmentos florestais degradados (em APP e RL), com base na ecologia de restauração de ecossistemas de referência, visando testar cientificamente os preceitos do Novo Código Florestal Brasileiro
• Beneficiário: Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa BIOTA - Temático
• Processo FAPESP: 99/09635-0 - Diversidade, dinâmica e conservação de árvores em florestas do estado de São Paulo: estudos em parcelas permanentes
• Beneficiário: Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa BIOTA - Temático
• Processo FAPESP: 13/17354-0 - Genômica e genética da conservação de populações de juçara (Euterpe edulis Martius) visando o seu manejo
• Beneficiário: Mariana Novello
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 07/53088-1 - Contribuição da plasticidade e de adaptações específicas em sementes e plântulas de Euterpe edulis e Syagrus romanzoffiana para a ocorrência em três formações florestais do estado de São Paulo
• Beneficiário: Pedro Henrique Santin Brancalion
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Doutorado Direto