Niu Yang, Sun Hang
a Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia; Kunming Institute of Botany; Chinese Academy of Sciences; Kunming, Yunnan, PR China.
Plant Signal Behav. 2014;9(9):e29698. doi: 10.4161/psb.29698.
Like animals, plants are attacked by enemies (herbivores) that forage using visual cues; however, the defensive coloration type known as cryptic coloration was rarely reported in plants. For most autotrophic plants, because photosynthesis relies on the presence of chlorophyll, a green leaf appearance is standard. However, if having leaves that are not green is more beneficial than costly, such coloration may evolve under certain conditions. Taking advantage of the leaf color dimorphism of Corydalis benecincta, we showed that the cryptically colored leaves confer a clear benefit without obvious cost in natural populations. Based on this study, we try to provide a framework on which to base a cost-benefit analysis to investigate the evolution of cryptic leaf coloration in plants.
与动物一样，植物会受到利用视觉线索觅食的敌人（食草动物）的攻击；然而，植物中被称为保护色的防御性着色类型却鲜有报道。对于大多数自养植物来说，由于光合作用依赖叶绿素的存在，绿色叶片外观是常态。然而，如果拥有非绿色叶片的益处大于代价，这种颜色可能会在特定条件下进化。利用紫堇叶的颜色二态性，我们发现，在自然种群中，具有保护色的叶片能带来明显益处且无明显代价。基于这项研究，我们试图提供一个框架，在此基础上进行成本效益分析，以研究植物中保护色叶片的进化。
