FLAXMATE · Biodiversity drivers in Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems: Pollination and the evolution of mating phenotypes in yellow flaxes (Linum spp.)
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-03-01 → 2024-12-28
- EU contribution
- €207,163
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Biodiversity drivers in Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems: Pollination and the evolution of mating phenotypes in yellow flaxes (Linum spp.)
Biodiversity embodies the evolutionary potential of Life against global change. Among the most biodiverse regions of our planet, called diversity hotspots, are the five existing Mediterranean regions (MTEs, Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems). Among them, due to their number of species, the Mediterranean Basin (MB, Mediterranean Basin) and the Cape Region in South Africa (CFR, Cape Floristic Region) stand out. One of the great drivers of biodiversity on our planet is the coevolution between flowers and pollinators. Particularly, the fit of the floral sexual organs (i.e. the mating phenotype) with the pollinator body has the most crucial implication in the function of the pollinator-flower interaction. Therefore, the role of pollinators and plant sexual diversity in the evolution of Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems floras is a silver bullet target for biodiversity research and conservation in Europe. The FLAXMaTE project has investigated how the reproductive traits of flowers and pollinators promote biodiversity in MTEs. To do this, a group of 74 species of yellow flaxes (Linum spp.), wild relatives of cultivated flax, which are distributed from the MB to the CFR, passing through eastern Africa, were studied. Within this group, there is a convergence in the appearance of floral polymorphisms in the two study MTEs. It was observed that the pollination system of species determines the evolution of their mating phenotype, in a way that suggest that pollination precision is the main underlying evolutionary force. The biogeographý of species plays a role in the evolution of mating phenotypes and in the appearance of heterostyly. The occurrence of species in biodiversity hotspots, including Mediterranean-type ecosystems, does not seem to be related to the evolution of this mating system,
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The role of pollinators and plant sexual diversity in the evolution of Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems (MTE) floras is a silver bullet target for biodiversity research and conservation in Europe. The setting of the floral sexual organs (the mating phenotype) has the most crucial implication in the function of the pollinator - flower interaction, i.e. in the efficiency of pollen transfer. However, it has never been studied quantitatively and in depth in evolutionary biology. FLAXMaTE will approach the evolution of the mating phenotypes in Linum, an intrinsically Mediterranean genus and a classic study system for the evolution of heterostyly with all its polymorphic species located in two MTE regions: the Mediterranean Basin (MB) and the Cape Floristic Region (CFR). In contrast with previous studies based in phenotypic categorisation or two-dimensional measures, I will for the first time characterize the mating phenotype of Linum species and their pollinators through an innovative three-dimensional geometric morphometric approach using computed tomography. To disentangle the macroevolutionary patterns of the mating phenotypes in Linum and the convergence of polymorphisms in MTEs, I will build a phylogeny of Old World yellow flaxes and I will use comparative methods to relate the evolution of the mating phenotypes with the MTE distribution, the pollination niche of species, and the diversification rates of the clade. The genomic basis of the convergence will be also studied through the sequencing of the S-locus in polymorphic MB and CFR species. To test the role of pollinators and the mating function as biodiversity drivers and agents of the evolutionary convergence of stylar polymorphisms, I will test the similarity in the mating function of Linum in pairs of populations and species from the MB and CFR through pollen transfer experiments using a novel methodology based in quantum dots.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA · SevillaCoordinatorSpain
- UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATAL · WestvilleSouth Africa
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union