Phenotypic Plasticity of Leaf Shape along a Temperature Gradient in Acer rubrum

Abstract

Both phenotypic plasticity and genetic determination can be important for understanding how plants respond to environmental change. However, little is known about the plastic response of leaf teeth and leaf dissection to temperature. This gap is critical because these leaf traits are commonly used to reconstruct paleoclimate from fossils, and such studies tacitly assume that traits measured from fossils reflect the environment at the time of their deposition, even during periods of rapid climate change. We measured leaf size and shape in Acer rubrum derived from four seed sources with a broad temperature range and grown for two years in two gardens with contrasting climates (Rhode Island and Florida). Leaves in the Rhode Island garden have more teeth and are more highly dissected than leaves in Florida from the same seed source. Plasticity in these variables accounts for at least 6–19 % of the total variance, while genetic differences among ecotypes probably account for at most 69–87 %. This study highlights the role of phenotypic plasticity in leaf-climate relationships. We suggest that variables related to tooth count and leaf dissection in A. rubrum can respond quickly to climate change, which increases confidence in paleoclimate methods that use these variables.

Climate and Developmental Plasticity: Interannual Variability in Grapevine Leaf Morphology

“…This interpretation is also supported by recent work analyzing the transcriptomic responses in leaf primordia to simulated foliar shade and heteroblasty, showing that these phenomena in tomato leaf primordia are largely distinct at the molecular level (Chitwood et al, 2015a). Environmentally induced changes in leaf shape through timing-dependent (heterochronic) or timing-independent mechanisms are important, since field-based observations demonstrate that leaves plastically respond to their climate (Royer et al, 2009). This plasticity often results in changes to marginal serrations and lobes that are morphological features explicitly modulated by heteroblastic pathways at the molecular level in the Brassicaceae (Rubio-Somoza et al, 2014), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum; Chitwood et al, 2015a), and Proteaceae (Ostria-Gallardo et al, 2015).…”

Multiscale quantification of morphodynamics: MorphoLeaf, software for 2-D shape analysis

“…Accordingly, leaf shape is controlled by both endogenous and environmental factors. As an example, there is a general trend for leaves to be more dissected under colder climates (Royer et al, 2009), which is used to reconstruct the mean annual temperature in paleoclimates (Greenwood, 2005).…”

Phenotypic diversity, population structure and stress protein-based capacitoring in populations of Xeropicta derbentina, a heat-tolerant land snail species

“…Heat stress can influence phenotypic variation (Child et al 1940;Imasheva et al 1997;Royer et al 2009;Sisodia and Singh 2009;Hansen et al 2011;Crichigno et al 2012) and chaperones were suggested to canalize phenotypic development and, therefore, to act as capacitors of phenotypic variation (Rutherford and Lindquist 1998;Roberts and Feder 1999;Queitsch et al 2002;Rutherford 2003). Thus, it seems reasonable to hypothesize that they also participate in the regulation of phenotypic variation in natural populations of polymorphic land snails.…”