Sex Differences in Desiccation Tolerance Varies by Colony in the Mesic Liverwort Plagiochila porelloides

Abstract

Water scarcity, a common stress factor, negatively impacts plant performance. Strategies to cope with it, such as desiccation tolerance, are becoming increasingly important to investigate. However, phenomena, such as intraspecific variation in stress responses have not received much attention. Knowledge of this variability and the environmental drivers can be leveraged to further investigate the mechanisms of desiccation tolerance. Here we tested for variation in desiccation tolerance in Plagiochila porelloides among colonies and sexes within the same riparian zone. Field-collected dehardened plants were subjected to a desiccation event, under controlled conditions and then rehydrated. Plant water status, photosynthetic rates, net carbon gain, and efficiency of photosystem II (PSII) were assayed to evaluate tissue desiccation, basic metabolic processes and plant recovery. To establish a linkage between plant response and environmental factors, field light conditions were measured. We detected intraspecific variation, where a more exposed colony (high percentage of open sky, large temporal range of light quantity, and high red/far-red ratio) showed sex differences in desiccation tolerance and recovery. Overall, PSII recovery occurred by 72 h after rehydration, with a positive carbon gain occurring by day 30. This within species variation suggests plastic or genetic effects, and likely association with light conditions.

Discovery and Anticancer Activity of the Plagiochilins from the Liverwort Genus Plagiochila

“…This species has been used to isolate 2,3-secoaromadendrane-type esters derived from plagiochilin D [ 32 ]. It has been used recently as a model to study desiccation tolerance [ 53 ]. To our knowledge, the chemical structure of plagiochilin V, proposed 25 years ago, has not been confirmed.…”

Current and historical factors drive variation of reproductive traits in unisexual mosses in Europe: A case study

“…A major limitation of these studies is that they are based on observed phenotypic sex ratios in populations with rather low sex expression levels making it impossible to decipher whether expressed male rarity was due to greater female environmental tolerance, or to sex-specific differences in the conditions required to express sex. Studies in which field plants were grown until sex expression in the laboratory, however, seem to support the first assumption (Castetter et al, 2019), and so do laboratory assays showing greater, though sometimes habitat-dependent, female stress tolerance (e.g., Marks et al, 2016Marks et al, , 2019Silva-e-Costa et al, 2022; but see Stark et al, 2005b). It has also been recently demonstrated that higher female survival and/or clonal growth rates at the juvenile stage, that is, before sexual maturity, can also lead to shifts from male-to female-biased population sex ratios regardless of the environment (Eppley et al, 2018).…”