A new pollinating seed‐consuming mutualism between <i><scp>R</scp>heum nobile</i> and a fly fungus gnat, <i><scp>B</scp>radysia</i> sp., involving pollinator attraction by a specific floral compound

Song, Bo; Chen, Gao; Stöcklin, Jürg; Peng, De Li; Yang, Ning; Li, Zhi Min; Sun, Hang

doi:10.1111/nph.12856

Cited by 48 publications

(51 citation statements)

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“…The fly fungus gnat Bradysia sp. was the only visitor to flowers of R. alexandrae , but the species is different from that pollinating R. nobile (Song et al ., ). Female flies were observed foraging for pollen grains and laying eggs in the ovaries of parts of the flowers.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Observations of floral visits were carried out on six flowering plants between 11 and 15 June 2012 and between 15 and 19 June 2013. Diurnal visitor observations were carried out from 09:00 to 18:00 h. Nocturnal visitor observations were carried out from 21:00 to 23:00 h using a flashlight equipped with a red‐light filter (Song et al ., ). Insect visitors were collected and identified by Prof. Jun‐hao Huang (Zhejiang A & F University).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Although R. nobile and R. alexandrae have been shown to have originated from different ancestors (Sun et al ., ), their similar phenotypes and shared environmental conditions suggest that their bracts may have similar adaptive functions (Tsukaya, ; Liu et al ., ). In addition, as reported for R. nobile (Song et al ., ), our preliminary studies found that R. alexandrae depends mainly on insects for pollination and the flowers are frequently visited by seed‐eating flies in the genus Bradysia (Diptera: Sciaridae).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…transferring pollen from the anther of a flower to the stigma of the same flower or of another flower) is necessary for successful reproduction. Several studies have shown that insect pollination is crucial for reproductive success in many alpine plant species (Stenström & Molau, ; Totland, ; Bergman, Molau & Holmgren, ; Puterbaugh, ; Song et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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The bracts of the alpine ‘glasshouse’ plantRheum alexandrae(Polygonaceae) enhance reproductive fitness of its pollinating seed-consuming mutualist

et al. 2015

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Environmental conditions are known to affect the reproductive fitness of insects, as do host plants. Although the highly specialized bracts of Himalayan ‘glasshouse’ plants are thought to be an adaptive morphology that allows the plant to reproduce in harsh alpine environments, little information appears to exist concerning the benefit of these bracts for the pollinating insects. In this study, we examine whether the semi‐translucent bracts of Rheum alexandrae, a giant herb endemic to the alpine zone of the Hengduan Mountains in south‐western China, enhance the reproductive fitness of its pollinator. Rheum alexandrae depends mainly on mutualistic seed‐consuming Bradysia flies for pollination. Bracts increased interior temperature on sunny days, acted as a buffer against fluctuating air humidity, greatly decreased the intensities of ultraviolet B/C radiation and provided shelter from strong winds. Bract removal significantly decreased adult oviposition and offspring performance of pollinators during flowering and fruiting, respectively. Our results indicate that the bracts of R. alexandrae enhance the reproductive fitness of its pollinating seed‐consuming mutualist in alpine environments, which may be attributed to the positive effects of the bracts on the interior microenvironment. © 2015 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, 179, 349–359.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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The bracts of the alpine ‘glasshouse’ plantRheum alexandrae(Polygonaceae) enhance reproductive fitness of its pollinating seed-consuming mutualist

et al. 2015

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“…For example, Song et al. ( ) reported a new case of pollinating seed‐consuming mutualism between the Himalayan herb Rheum nobile and a fly fungus gnat, Bradysia sp. Adult flies are attracted by an unusual floral VOC, 2‐methyl butyric acid methyl ester.…”

Section: Pollinator Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction to a Virtual Special Issue on plant volatiles

Kessler

2016

New Phytologist

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Introduction to a Virtual Special Issue on plant volatilesChemistry is crucial in mediating all types of antagonistic, mutualistic and neutral ecological interactions between all kinds of organisms and on all organizational levels, from the intra-cellular over the organismal to the ecosystem level (Raguso et al., 2015). Plant life seems particularly dependent on chemical information, a fact directly linked to one of the most cited questions in biology: Why are there so many different kinds of plant secondary metabolites? The last decades have seen various exciting approaches to answer this question from a proximate (e.g. physiological, developmental) and ultimate (e.g. functional and evolutionary) perspective, and plants were increasingly used as the basic model systems to understand chemical information transfer. Thereby the study of low molecular weight, lipophilic compounds emitted into the headspace surrounding the plant, so-called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (Pichersky et al., 2006), generated especially valuable new concepts that, among other things, re-introduced the application of behavioral biology principles into the functional analysis of plant traits (Karban, 2008).Today > 1700 VOCs from at least 90 plant families have been identified (Knudsen et al., 2006) and, in part, are known to play roles in plant signal transduction, meditate interactions between plants, including recognizing kin, and provide host-specific information to antagonists (e.g. pathogens and herbivores) as well as mutualists (e.g. pollinators, seed dispersers, natural enemies of antagonists) (Dudareva et al., 2013;Heil, 2014). New Phytologist, with its strong focus on plant organismal interactions has become a natural facilitator of research into plant VOCs, both through direct funding contributed to the leading conferences in the field and as a highimpact venue for publishing new research on all aspects of plant VOC production. This Virtual Special Issue celebrates these contributions by featuring publications that are chronologically enveloped by two New Phytologist-sponsored Gordon Research Conferences on 'Plant Volatiles' (Ventura, California in 2014 and2016). The featured publications roughly reflect the research and syntheses over the related time period (2012)(2013)(2014)(2015) and includes studies into the mechanisms of biosynthesis and physiology, as well as the ecological functions of plant VOCs in mediating plant interactions with other plants, pollinators, herbivores and natural enemies of herbivores as well as larger scale ecosystem effects. Four reviews (

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Extreme specificity in obligate mutualism—A role for competition?

Agarwal,

Althoff

2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Obligate mutualisms, reciprocally obligate beneficial interactions, are some of the most important mutualisms on the planet, providing the basis for the evolution of the eukaryotic cell, the formation and persistence of terrestrial ecosystems and the establishment and expansion of coral reefs. In addition, these mutualisms can also lead to the diversification of interacting partner species. Accompanying this diversification is a general pattern of a high degree of specificity among interacting partner species. A survey of obligate mutualisms demonstrates that greater than half of these systems have only one or two mutualist species on each side of the interaction. This is in stark contrast to facultative mutualisms that can have dozens of interacting mutualist species. We posit that the high degree of specificity in obligate mutualisms is driven by competition within obligate mutualist guilds that limits species richness. Competition may be particularly potent in these mutualisms because mutualistic partners are totally dependent on each other's fitness gains, which may fuel interspecific competition. Theory and the limited number of empirical studies testing for the role of competition in determining specificity suggest that competition may be an important force that fuels the high degree of specificity. Further empirical research is needed to dissect the relative roles of trait complementarity, mutualism regulation, and competition among mutualist guild members in determining mutualism specificity at local scales.

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A new pollinating seed‐consuming mutualism between Rheum nobile and a fly fungus gnat, Bradysia sp., involving pollinator attraction by a specific floral compound

Cited by 48 publications

References 50 publications

The bracts of the alpine ‘glasshouse’ plantRheum alexandrae(Polygonaceae) enhance reproductive fitness of its pollinating seed-consuming mutualist

The bracts of the alpine ‘glasshouse’ plantRheum alexandrae(Polygonaceae) enhance reproductive fitness of its pollinating seed-consuming mutualist

Introduction to a Virtual Special Issue on plant volatiles

Extreme specificity in obligate mutualism—A role for competition?

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