Biology Department, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514.
Evolution. 2019 Nov;73(11):2343-2344. doi: 10.1111/evo.13857. Epub 2019 Oct 14.
Little is known about how microbial communities shape the expression of plant phenotypes and phenotypic correlations. This is precisely the question that O'Brien et al. addressed using populations of highland teosinte, a wild relative of maize. The authors find that both abiotic conditions and different rhizosphere compositions have a strong effect on teosinte phenotypes and correlations among traits. These results indicate that microbial communities might have a strong effect on plant trait expression.
关于微生物群落如何塑造植物表型和表型相关性，人们知之甚少。这正是 O'Brien 等人利用玉米野生近缘种高地墨西哥类蜀黍种群来解决的问题。作者发现，非生物条件和不同的根际组成对墨西哥类蜀黍的表型和性状间相关性都有很强的影响。这些结果表明，微生物群落可能对植物性状的表达有很强的影响。
