Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 116, Issue 10, Pages 4406-4415Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1809007116
Keywords
geographic mosaic of coevolution; floral volatiles; geographic variation; floral parasitism; pollination
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Funding
- Swedish Research Council
- Fulbright Commission
- Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
- Crafoord Foundation
- Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education
- UCSC Langenheim Chair funds
- National Science Foundation [DEB-0839853, DEB-0746106, IOS-0923765]
- Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo [2017/08406-7]
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico grant
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A major challenge in evolutionary biology is to understand how complex traits of multiple functions have diversified and codiversified across interacting lineages and geographic ranges. We evaluate intra- and interspecific variation in floral scent, which is a complex trait of documented importance for mutualistic and antagonistic interactions between plants, pollinators, and herbivores. We performed a large-scale, phylogenetically structured study of an entire plant genus (Lithophragma, Saxifragaceae), of which several species are coevolving with specialized pollinating floral parasites of the moth genus Greya (Prodoxidae). We sampled 94 Lithophragma populations distributed across all 12 recognized Lithophragma species and subspecies, and four populations of related saxifragaceous species. Our results reveal an unusually high diversity of floral volatiles among populations, species, and clades within the genus. Moreover, we found unexpectedly major changes at each of these levels in the biosynthetic pathways used by local populations in their floral scents. Finally, we detected significant, but variable, genus-and species-level patterns of ecological convergence in the floral scent signal, including an impact of the presence and absence of two pollinating Greya moth species. We propose that one potential key to understanding floral scent variation in this hypervariable genus is its geographically diverse interactions with the obligate specialized Greya moths and, in some species and sites, more generalized copollinators.
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