Annals of botany最新文献

{"title":"Multilamellated zones in the sporoderm of heterosporous lycopsids: adaptive trait or evolutionary spandrel?","authors":"Natalia Zavialova, Svetlana Polevova","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcaf218","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf218","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Multilamellated zones (MZs) are small areas in the innermost portion of sporopollenin-containing walls of spores of heterosporous lycopsids, where this layer of the sporopollenin wall becomes thicker by splitting into interconnected lamellae. The detection of MZs is difficult, but accumulating information on their occurrence suggests possible evolutionary and taxonomic importance, requiring updating and reevaluation.</p><p><strong>Scope: </strong>The paper reviews the occurrences of MZs in spores of fossil and extant lycopsids (since the Devonian to modern time). The majority of MZ records are ascribed with different degrees of certainty to the isoetalean lineage, but they are also observed in some members of Selaginellales. The only known homosporous plant with MZs is the Early Devonian Leclercqia. As to modern Isoetes and Selaginella, some species of these genera possess them, but only in microspores. It is still unclear when megaspores lost MZs and whether it was a single event. The available information is incomplete: ultrastructural characteristics are available for microspores of several taxa of fossil heterosporous lycopsids, but there is a lack of data on their megaspores.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The occurrence of MZs almost exclusively in heterosporous lycopsids and their consistent presence in isoetaleans are begging for phylogenetic interpretation, but their occurrence in some species and absence in other species of the same genera and especially the dearth of relevant information on many heterosporous lycopsids warrant cautious interpretation. The location of MZs only in the vicinity of the haptotypic mark and the fact that they appeared as early as in Devonian and are still present in extant species suggest that they have some function. Although the most widely circulated hypothesis relates them to spore germination, no confirmation has been obtained so far from extant species.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145084826","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A phylogenomic study of African Impatiens (Balsaminaceae) using nuclear and chloroplast sequences.","authors":"Nora Gavin-Smyth, Stefan Abrahamczyk, Norman J Wickett, Patrick S Herendeen","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcaf210","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf210","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>The large genus, Impatiens, is well known to vary excessively, presenting extensive modifications in floral structure among its 1100+ species. Phylogenetic relationships in the genus have historically been difficult to intuit based on morphology, given numerous occurrences of convergent evolution, but they are also difficult to determine based on molecular characters. In this study we focus on resolving the phylogentic relationships within the genus Impatiens, with an emphasis on continental African taxa.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A phylogenetic tree including 206 Impatiens taxa across the genus, 128 of which are continental African taxa, was inferred from a target enrichment dataset targeting the Angiosperms353 loci and from genome skimming for plastomes. To estimate divergence times within the genus, we first generated a phylogenetic tree for the order Ericales, then calibrated it using 13 Ericalean fossils.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>Crown Balsaminaceae dates to 59.3 mya and crown Impatiens to 45.4 mya. This dates the dispersals into Africa and subsequent radiation to the Miocene. We confirm three African dispersals from Asia, and we find two major clades within the third African dispersal: the Pan-African clade diversified across all regions of tropical Africa, while the East Africa clade diversified within Tanzania and Kenya. We find extensive discordance between plastid and nuclear topologies, but both support the monophyly of the seven sections in subgenus Impatiens.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The radiation of Impatiens is not relatively recent, and the genus dates to the Eocene. Even with increased taxon sampling and gene coverage, there are numerous instances of convergence and rapid evolution of floral forms in Impatiens. Nuclear phylogeny of the genus tracks geography closer than chloroplast phylogeny. A robust framework has been generated for further phylogenetic studies on this megadiverse genus.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145032560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Towards the automatized identification of moss species from their spore morphology.","authors":"Alix Milis, Martin Hofmann, Patrick Mäder, Jana Wäldchen, Myriam de Haan, Petra Ballings, Iris Van der Beeten, Bernard Goffinet, Alain Vanderpoorten","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcaf215","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf215","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Automatized species identification tools have massively facilitated plant identification. In mosses, spore ultrastructure appears to be a promising taxonomic character, but has been largely under-exploited. Here, we test artificial intelligence-based approaches to identify species from their spore morphology. In particular, we determine whether the number of spores, their polarity, and variation among populations and capsules affect model accuracy.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Scanning electron microscopy spore images were generated for five capsules of five populations in ten species. Convolutional neural networks with a highly modularized architecture (ResNeXt) were trained to identify the species, population and capsule of origin of a spore. The training set was progressively sub-sampled to test the impact of sample size on model accuracy. To assess whether variation in spore morphology among populations affected model accuracy, one population was successively removed to test a model trained on the four remaining populations.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>Species were correctly identified at average rates of 92 %, regardless of polarity. Model accuracy decreased progressively with decreasing sample size, dropping to about 80 % with 15 % of the initial dataset. The population and capsule of origin of a spore was retrieved at rates >75 %, indicating the presence of diagnostic population and capsule markers on the sporoderm. Strong population structure in some species caused a substantial drop of model accuracy when model training and testing was performed on different populations.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Spore morphology appears to be an extremely promising tool for moss species identification and may usefully complement the suite of morphological characters used so far in moss taxonomy. The presence of spore diagnostic features at the population and capsule level raises substantial questions on the origin of this structure, which are discussed. Substantial infraspecific variation makes it necessary, however, to train an automatized identification tool from a range of populations and capsules.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145147540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cell wall invertase improves grain nutrition via regulating sugar and hormone metabolism gene expression in transgenic soybean.","authors":"Tingting Mao, Shengjie Zhuo, Zigui Geng, Shengnan Wang, Yaru Zhang, Feifei Gao, Yang Yu, Wenlong Geng, Chunyan Yu, Bei Li, Juan Zhang, Hongxia Zhang","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcaf221","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf221","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Cell wall invertases have multiple roles in plant growth and development, yet their biological functions in seed oil production are still not understood.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In the present study, the Oryza sativa (rice) cell wall invertase gene OsGIF1 (GRAIN INCOMPLETE FILLING 1) was ectopically expressed in Glycine max (Soybean) and its functions in grain yield and seed nutrition was investigated.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>We found that constitutive expression of OsGIF1 significantly improved biomass production, grain yield and seed nutrition in transgenic plants. The contents of protein and starch were significantly increased without dramatic alteration in the content of oil in the seeds of transgenic plants. In addition, the contents of histidine, tryptophan, asparagine, glutamine, palmitic acid and linoleic acid were increased, whereas the contents of oleic acid and linolenic acid were decreased. Further transcriptomic analyses in transgenic plants showed that genes associated with sugar and hormone metabolism were dramatically up-regulated.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our findings offer direct evidence for the potential usage of this gene in the genetic breeding of oil crops with improved grain yield and nutrition.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145028717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring the Role of β-1,3-Glucanase in Aerenchyma Development in Sugarcane Roots.","authors":"Grayce Hellen Romim, Eveline Q P Tavares, Adriana Grandis, Lauana P de Oliveira, Diego Demarco, Giovanna Gramegna, William V M Mira, Bruno V Navarro, Marcos S Buckeridge","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcaf216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf216","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Aerenchyma formation has emerged as a promising model for understanding cell wall modifications. Certain cells undergo programmed cell death (PCD), while others do not, suggesting the existence of a tightly regulated signaling dispersion mechanism. Cell-to-cell communication occurs via plasmodesmata, whose permeability is regulated by the deposition of callose (β-1,3-glucan) and its degradation by β-1,3-glucanase. These processes may be key to understanding the selection of specific cells, which modify their cell walls for aerenchyma formation. Therefore, this study aims to characterize the role of callose and β-1,3-glucanase during aerenchyma formation.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Sugarcane roots were segmented into five 1cm sections and embedded in LR-White resin. Semi-thin sections were obtained, and immunolocalization was performed using monoclonal antibodies for the polysaccharides callose (β-1,3-glucan) and mixed-linkage β-1,3-1,4-glucan. The protein for in situ localization was chosen based on its ontology and protein domain structure. A super-resolution microscope was utilized to identify the antibody signal deposition pattern.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>The antibody signal against mixed-linkage β-1,3-1,4-glucan was continuously detected along the cell wall in the early root segments. Its removal and degradation became evident from the third segment onward, coinciding with aerenchyma formation. In contrast, callose exhibited a punctate signal, possibly marking regions of plasmodesmata. Callose degradation followed a similar pattern to that of mixed-linkage β-1,3-1,4-glucan (S3-S5), though its signal was less abundant. The β-1,3-glucanase showed peak signal from segment 3 to segment 4, accompanied by a punctate signal, suggesting its action at regions of plasmodesmata and callose degradation sites.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The presence of callose raises critical questions about how cells transmit signals and why only certain cells undergo PCD. Managing the permeability and selectivity of intercellular communication may be a key factor in various biological processes. Gaining insight into these mechanisms and identifying potential enzymes and polysaccharides could provide new perspectives for future research.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145028724","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Elevated CO2, Warming and Drought Differentially Impact Reproductive and Vegetative Economic Traits in Two Grassland Species.","authors":"Murugash Manavalan, Dinesh Thakur, Andreas Schaumberger, Michael Bahn, Zuzana Münzbergová","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcaf214","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf214","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Since the Industrial Revolution, rising atmospheric CO₂, warming, and more frequent droughts have significantly impacted ecosystems. While the response of leaf functional traits to these climate change factors have been widely studied, reproductive traits remain relatively understudied, despite their key role in the diversification and distribution of flowering plants. Here, we investigated how elevated CO₂, warming, drought, and their interactions affect floral, leaf and seed traits in two model grassland species. We also examined how these factors influence trait coordination.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Two common grassland species, Lotus corniculatus and Crepis capillaris, were sampled from a 10-year climate manipulation experiment. We measured resource economic traits related to organ size, construction cost, and dry matter content in both leaves and flowers, along with seed size and number. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to assess trait responses, and rank-abundance curves were employed to visualize changes in trait coordination across treatments.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>Trait responses to climate change factors varied between species. Drought emerged as the most influential factor, affecting only leaf traits in L. corniculatus, but impacting leaf, floral, and seed traits in C. capillaris. Across both species, climate change conditions increased leaf construction costs and reduced flower size. In addition, it led to larger leaves in L. corniculatus, and fewer seeds in C. capillaris. Under extreme climate change conditions, trait coordination became stronger in both species, although C. capillaris showed no coordination response specifically to drought.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our results show that floral economic traits, like leaf traits, are responsive to individual and combined effects of climate change factors. This highlights their importance in shaping plant strategies under environmental stress and emphasizes the need to better integrate floral traits into the whole-plant economic framework.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145028769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The taphonomic puzzle of Notothylacites filiformis: reinterpretation of bryophyte fossils from the Late Cretaceous of Czechia reveals co-occurrence of hornworts and liverworts.","authors":"Veronika Veselá, Marcela Svobodová, Veronika Kadlecová, Jiřina Dašková, Jiří Kvaček","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcaf219","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf219","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Hornworts are rarely found in the fossil record, so each new find provides important insights regarding their evolution and diversity. Here we revisit a controversial genus, Notothylacites, described from the Late Cretaceous of Central Europe, which has liverwort morphology, but bears hornwort spores.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The fossil material was originally studied in 1970 by Pacltová using pollen preparation techniques. Using a single grain method, we extracted the spores from the preparation matrix, and observed them with SEM. For comparison, we studied the spores of the extant hornwort genus Notothylas.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>We reinterpret the original N. filiformis holotype as a conglomerate of two fossils: a hornwort, Notothylacites, and a liverwort, which we designate as a new species Ricciopsis pacltovae. Notothylacites filiformis was lectotypified, using material from seven slides and the original drawing, which emphasized a key character - a sporangium with apical longitudinal dehiscence slit containing psilate, trilete spores. Ricciopsis pacltovae, erected based on comparisons to seven already described species, is a liverwort that closely resembles extant Riccia, with a prostrate circular thallus consisting of dichotomously branched, linear segments, up to six dichotomies per branch, each branch with a pronounced narrow medial sulcus. These and other morphological traits distinguish it from previously described species in the genus.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Notothylacites filiformis is reinterpreted as one of the rare examples of a fossil hornwort sporophyte. Gametophyte material previously assigned to N. filiformis is assigned to a new fossil liverwort species, Ricciopsis pacltovae. Hornworts frequently grow on wet soil together with Riccia liverworts. The co-occurrence of the two fossil species further highlights the presence of bryophyte diversity in the Late Cretaceous that mirrors extant ecological associations. This study corrects decades of taxonomic confusion, demonstrating how taphonomic mixing can mislead interpretations, and emphasizes the importance of re-examining collections with modern methods.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145028856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Away from the primary domestication center, the Far-West diversification area of the olive tree: towards the management of Moroccan natural resources.","authors":"El Bakkali Ahmed, Lamoumni Othmane, Haouane Hicham, Zaher Hayat, Moukhli Abdelmajid, Terral Jean-Frédéric, Besnard Guillaume, Khadari Bouchaib","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcaf209","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf209","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Olive (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea) is one of the most widespread woody crops in the Mediterranean Basin (MB) existing in two forms, namely the wild (or oleaster) and the cultivated olive (varieties). In its southwestern most distribution range, Morocco is an area of primary interest, as it is both a genetic hotspot for wild olives and a diversification center for the cultivated form. This study aimed to deepen understanding of the evolutionary history of olive trees in this geographic area.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A total of 221 oleasters from 25 populations across eight geographical regions were collected along a north-south gradient and analysed using both nuclear and plastid DNA markers, alongside 306 well-known Mediterranean olive varieties. The genetic status of wild olives and the environmental factors potentially driving their genetic structure were investigated.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>Local wild olives and Mediterranean varieties displayed similar levels of genetic diversity and richness, while local oleasters were mostly assigned to a distinct gene pool. Two seed-propagated olive forms were genetically identified: genuinely wild and feral olives near olive cropping areas, suggesting gene flow between wild and clonally propagated olives. The E3 matrilineage was predominant in northwestern Morocco, with endemic haplotypes supporting the assumption that this region served as a long-term refugium for the oleaster. A north-south genetic structure of genuine wild olives was revealed, likely driven by an ancient split in their distribution due to palaeoclimatic and palaeobiogeographic factors, further influenced by human activities.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Environmental and anthropogenic factors, including climate and human-driven land-use changes, may have shaped the current distribution of wild olive populations in the extreme southwestern MB. In the context of ongoing climate changes, understanding evolutionary history and identifying diversity hotspots are crucial for guiding efforts to develop cost-effective conservation strategies of natural resources.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145022762","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A phylogenetic approach to prioritising crop wild relatives in Brassiceae (Brassicaceae) for breeding applications.","authors":"Elena Castillo-Lorenzo, Kasper P Hendriks, Flora Gilmour, Amelia Shepherd-Clowes, Freya Cornwell-Davison, Víctor M Rodríguez, Pablo Velasco, Elinor Breman, Juan Viruel","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcaf201","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf201","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Crop wild relatives (CWRs) are key resources for enhancing agricultural resilience, providing genetic traits that can improve pest resistance, abiotic stress tolerance, and nutritional composition in domesticated crops. Within the mustard family (Brassicaceae) this is especially significant in the Brassiceae tribe, which includes economically important genera for agriculture such as Brassica and Sinapis. However, while breeding programmes have historically focused on major crops within this tribe, the potential of their wild relatives, particularly for underutilised and minor crops, remains insufficiently explored.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We sequenced 175 accessions from six genera, Brassica, Crambe, Diplotaxis, Eruca, Raphanus and Sinapis, using herbarium, seed, and living collections. We combined those sequences with 30 nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences from GenBank. Libraries were prepared with Angiosperms353 and Brassicaceae bait kits to build a phylogenetic tree to calculate the phylogenetic distances between tips.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>We studied the ITS region to build a robust phylogeny for 189 accessions spanning 90 taxa, incorporating newly generated sequences, which included a total of 30 taxa not sequenced before, alongside publicly available sequence data. Phylogenetic distances derived from an ultrametric tree were used to infer cross-compatibility and identify 23 candidate CWRs across the five genera. Our results confirm known relationships based on gene pool classifications of CWRs but also highlight previously overlooked or misclassified taxa that may hold value for crop improvement.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This work demonstrates the efficacy of ITS markers for CWR identification and supports their use as a scalable tool for integrating biological collections into modern breeding and conservation strategies. It provides a comprehensive framework for targeting wild genetic diversity in Brassiceae crops and prioritising species for future pre-breeding research.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145028730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Shift from acquisitive to conservative plant strategies with increasing drought and temperature extremes in an alpine shrub.","authors":"Dinesh Thakur, Nikita Rathore, Veronika Jandova, Zuzana Münzbergová, Jiri Dolezal","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcaf211","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf211","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Trait-based approaches have advanced our understanding of plant strategies, yet they often focus on leaf-level traits, overlooking the functional roles of stem anatomy and twig characteristics. We investigated intraspecific trait variation in Salix flabellaris, an alpine dwarf shrub, along climatic gradients in the Himalayas. Our goal was to identify distinct axes of trait variation related to stem, twig, and leaf traits, assess their environmental drivers, and evaluate population-specific growth responses to recent climate change.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We measured anatomical and morphological traits in stem, twig, and leaves across central and marginal populations along three Himalayan transects. Environmental gradients included variation in growing season temperature and soil moisture. Basal area increment from 2000 to 2021 was analyzed to assess long-term growth trends in different areas.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Trait dimensions were largely independent, reflecting distinct ecological strategies: (1) stem anatomical trade-off between hydraulic safety and conductivity; (2) twig dimension balancing construction costs and mechanical strength; and (3) leaf dimension along the exploitative-conservative axis. Higher temperatures enhanced performance manifested as larger twigs and reduced tissue construction costs but only under sufficient soil moisture conditions. Central populations at mid-elevations displayed the favorable trait combinations and highest growth rates. In contrast, marginal populations (higher and lower elevations) showed traits indicating structural reinforcement and conservative resource use. Climate warming over recent decades enhanced stem growth primarily in high-elevation populations, where low-temperature constraints were relaxed.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study demonstrates that stem, twig, and leaf traits represent distinct yet complementary strategies, with environmental filtering shaping their expression along climate gradients. Central populations exhibit highest growth under current conditions, while climate change is shifting growth advantages toward higher elevations. These findings highlight the need for integrated, multi-organ trait assessments to predict species performance, persistence, and potential range shifts under future climatic scenarios.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145022812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}