Milla Rubén, Forero Diana M, Escudero Adrián, Iriondo Jose M
Area de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, c/Tulipán s/n, E-28933 Móstoles, Madrid, Spain.
Proc Biol Sci. 2009 Jul 22;276(1667):2531-40. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2009.0369. Epub 2009 Apr 29.
Recent work has shown that certain plants can identify their kin in competitive settings through root recognition, and react by decreasing root growth when competing with relatives. Although this may be a necessary step in kin selection, no clear associated improvement in individual or group fitness has been reported to qualify as such. We designed an experiment to address whether genetic relatedness between neighbouring plants affects individual or group fitness in artificial populations. Seeds of Lupinus angustifolius were sown in groups of siblings, groups of different genotypes from the same population and groups of genotypes from different populations. Both plants surrounded by siblings and by genotypes from the same population had lower individual fitness and produced fewer flowers and less vegetative biomass as a group. We conclude that genetic relatedness entails decreased individual and group fitness in L. angustifolius. This, together with earlier work, precludes the generalization that kin recognition may act as a widespread, major microevolutionary mechanism in plants.
最近的研究表明，某些植物在竞争环境中能够通过根系识别来辨别其亲缘关系，并在与亲缘植物竞争时通过减少根系生长做出反应。尽管这可能是亲缘选择中的一个必要步骤，但尚未有明确报道称个体或群体适应性有相关改善以符合这一情况。我们设计了一项实验，以探究相邻植物之间的遗传相关性是否会影响人工种群中的个体或群体适应性。将窄叶羽扇豆种子按同胞组、来自同一群体的不同基因型组以及来自不同群体的基因型组进行播种。被同胞植物和来自同一群体的基因型植物包围的植株个体适应性较低，且作为一个群体，其开花数量较少，营养生物量也较少。我们得出结论，遗传相关性会导致窄叶羽扇豆个体和群体适应性降低。这与早期研究结果共同表明，不能一概而论地认为亲缘识别可能是植物中广泛存在的主要微进化机制。
