Fan Yilei, Zhang Ruichang, Zhang Yuanlin, Yue Ming
Northwest University, Xi'an, China.
Front Plant Sci. 2022 Aug 17;13:950758. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.950758. eCollection 2022.
Kin recognition might help plants decrease competitive cost and improve inclusive fitness with close genes; thus it might interact with environmental factors to affect communities. Whether and how various factors, such as the genetic distance of neighbors, environmental stressors, or the way a plant recognizes its neighbors, might modify plant growth strategies remains unclear. To answer these questions, we conducted experiments in which ramets of a clonal plant, , were grown adjacent to different genetically related neighbors (clone kin / close kin / distant kin) in different nutrient conditions (high / medium / low), or with only root exudates from pre-treatment in culture solution. By comparing competitive traits, we found that: (1) kin recognition in was enhanced with closer genetic distance; (2) the outcomes of kin recognition were influenced by the extent of nutrient shortage; (3) kin recognition helped to alleviate the nutrient shortage effect; (4) kin recognition via root exudates affected only below-ground growth. Our results provide new insights on the potential for manipulating the outcome of kin recognition by altering neighbor genetic distance, nutrient conditions and recognition ways. Moreover, kin recognition can help plants mitigate the effects of nutrient shortage, with potential implications in agricultural research.
亲缘识别可能有助于植物降低竞争成本，并通过相近基因提高广义适合度；因此，它可能与环境因素相互作用以影响群落。邻居的遗传距离、环境压力源或植物识别邻居的方式等各种因素是否以及如何改变植物的生长策略仍不清楚。为了回答这些问题，我们进行了实验，将一种克隆植物的分株种植在不同的营养条件（高/中/低）下，使其与不同遗传关系的邻居（克隆亲缘/近亲缘/远亲缘）相邻生长，或者仅在培养液中添加预处理后的根系分泌物。通过比较竞争性状，我们发现：（1）该植物中的亲缘识别随着遗传距离的缩短而增强；（2）亲缘识别的结果受到养分短缺程度的影响；（3）亲缘识别有助于减轻养分短缺的影响；（4）通过根系分泌物进行的亲缘识别仅影响地下生长。我们的研究结果为通过改变邻居遗传距离、养分条件和识别方式来操纵亲缘识别结果的潜力提供了新的见解。此外，亲缘识别可以帮助植物减轻养分短缺的影响，这在农业研究中具有潜在意义。
