Germination patterns throughout an insular altitudinal gradient: The case of the Macaronesian endemic plant Rubia fruticosa Ait. (Rubiaceae) in El Hierro (Canary Islands)

Nogales, Manuel; Padrón, Benigno; Padilla, David P.; Nieves, Concepción; Marrero, Patricia

doi:10.1016/j.flora.2008.07.006

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(28 reference statements)

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“…It is present on all the seven main Canary Islands and occupies the coastal xerophytic scrub, although it can also reach high altitudes (≈800 m a.s.l.) when the original vegetation belts have been profoundly modified by humans [48]. Its fleshy fruits are spherical translucent berries (length: 7.5 mm; diameter: 5.6 mm; no.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting Selective Pressures on Seed Traits of Two Congeneric Species by Their Main Native Guilds of Dispersers on Islands

et al. 2013

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Many fleshy-fruited plants from the Mediterranean and Macaronesian islands are dispersed through endozoochory. In mainland Mediterranean areas, reciprocal adaptations have been found between plants and animals, although evidence is scarce. On small isolated oceanic islands, such reciprocal adaptations might well be more prevalent due to intrinsic island traits. Here we evaluate the existence of selective pressures exerted by two different disperser guilds (lizards and birds) on two seed traits (seed coat thickness and seed germination pattern) of two congeneric species present on Mediterranean and Macaronesian islands. In the continental Balearic Islands, Rubia peregrina has evolved mostly with birds, although frugivorous lizards are present in some of these islands and are known to eventually consume its fruits. By contrast, R. fruticosa, endemic to the Macaronesian archipelago, has evolved mostly interacting with lizards and only recently with birds. We hypothesized that R. fruticosa would be especially adapted to saurochory, with thicker seed coats and higher germination proportion, whereas R. peregrina would be more adapted to ornithocory, with thinner seed coats and showing a lower germination percentage after being ingested by lizards. Captivity experiments of seed ingestions by natural and non-natural dispersers (i.e., frugivores that have not evolved with those plants) were conducted. Results suggest that dispersers did not exert any strong enough selective pressure to induce changes in germination patterns. We attribute this to the fact that the Rubiaceae is an ancestral family in the Mediterranean (both on continent and islands) and thus probably interacted with lizards in the past. Lastly, although we hold that the seed coat structure of R. fruticosa is probably associated with its evolutionary success after a long interaction with insular lizards, our findings support the idea that the relationship between endozoochorous plants and the guild of dispersers with whom they evolved is rather unspecific.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting Selective Pressures on Seed Traits of Two Congeneric Species by Their Main Native Guilds of Dispersers on Islands

et al. 2013

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“…The most plausible explanation for the decentralized modification is that the rise of a nematocyst prototype was followed by the rapid diversification of cnidarians and, therefore, there was a relatively short period for evolutionary events to occur [ 119 ] before the rapid expansion of nematocysts into various lineages. Subsequently, strong selective pressure led to active lineage-specific modifications and finally contributed to the high heterogeneity of nematocysts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative Insights into the Contribution of Nematocysts to the Adaptive Success of Cnidarians Based on Proteomic Analysis

Guo

Whipps

Zhai

et al. 2022

Biology

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Nematocysts are secretory organelles in cnidarians that play important roles in predation, defense, locomotion, and host invasion. However, the extent to which nematocysts contribute to adaptation and the mechanisms underlying nematocyst evolution are unclear. Here, we investigated the role of the nematocyst in cnidarian evolution based on eight nematocyst proteomes and 110 cnidarian transcriptomes/genomes. We detected extensive species-specific adaptive mutations in nematocyst proteins (NEMs) and evidence for decentralized evolution, in which most evolutionary events involved non-core NEMs, reflecting the rapid diversification of NEMs in cnidarians. Moreover, there was a 33–55 million year macroevolutionary lag between nematocyst evolution and the main phases of cnidarian diversification, suggesting that the nematocyst can act as a driving force in evolution. Quantitative analysis revealed an excess of adaptive changes in NEMs and enrichment for positively selected conserved NEMs. Together, these findings suggest that nematocysts may be key to the adaptive success of cnidarians and provide a reference for quantitative analyses of the roles of phenotypic novelties in adaptation.

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“…El Hierro island is located in the southwestern extreme of the Canary Isles, lying between 17º52'-18º09'W and 27º38'-27º51'N. It is a small island (278.5 km 2 ), the most oceanic island of the Archipelago (Nogales et al 2009), and geologically the youngest, being 1 M yr of age (Fuster et al 1993). In order to know the phytodiversity of these juniper woodlands 24 plots of 200 m 2 have been studied, each plot being situated at different levels, aspects and slopes ( Figure 1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phytodiversity of the remnants of Canarian endemic juniper woodlands on El Hierro, Canary Islands

Romo¹,

Catarineu²

2013

ecmed

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identifiées, leur couverture et leur sociabilité ont été calculées en employant la méthodologie établie par Braun-Blanquet. Pour chaque taxon, le type biologique et la chorologie ont été précisés. Nous avons élaboré des tableaux avec l'ensemble des relevés et, afin de connaître les affinités des parcelles étudiées, nous présentons également les résultats sous forme de clusters et de dendrogrammes. Bien que la forêt de genévriers (dominée par Juniperus turbinata subsp. canariensis) représente moins d'un dixième de la végétation naturelle, on y trouve un cinquième du total de la flore vasculaire de l'île d'El Hierro. La flore associée avec le genévrier comprend 30,6 % des taxons endémiques de la région macaronésique, parmi lesquels 22,1 % d'endémiques des îles Canaries, 4,6 % d'endémiques des îles Canaries et Madeira, 3,1 % d'endémiques d'El Hierro, et 0,8 % d'endémiques des îles Canaries, Madeira et Cap Vert. L'analyse de la phytodiversité des différentes parcelles étudiées reflète une très forte affinité entre les forêts sèches de genévriers des parcelles les plus basses et les forêts de genévriers des parcelles de plus haute altitude. Parmi les parcelles plus élevées, on peut différencier celles situées dans des conditions plus humides près de la forêt laurifoliée, de celles situées à proximité des forêts de Pinus canariensis en ambiances plus sèches.

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Germination patterns throughout an insular altitudinal gradient: The case of the Macaronesian endemic plant Rubia fruticosa Ait. (Rubiaceae) in El Hierro (Canary Islands)

Cited by 4 publications

References 27 publications

Contrasting Selective Pressures on Seed Traits of Two Congeneric Species by Their Main Native Guilds of Dispersers on Islands

Contrasting Selective Pressures on Seed Traits of Two Congeneric Species by Their Main Native Guilds of Dispersers on Islands

Quantitative Insights into the Contribution of Nematocysts to the Adaptive Success of Cnidarians Based on Proteomic Analysis

Phytodiversity of the remnants of Canarian endemic juniper woodlands on El Hierro, Canary Islands

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