Trichome density differences in Boechera stricta across an elevational gradient.

Abstract

Insect herbivores consume plant tissue, reducing plant fitness in the process. In response, plants have evolved a variety of mechanical and chemical defenses to protect themselves. This paper focuses on trichomes, which are hair-like appendages that extend from leaf tissues, and plants use them as a defense mechanism against herbivores as well as a way to reduce evapotranspiration. Over the course of the study, we collected rosette leaves from experimental Boechera stricta plants located in five common gardens. These gardens are located across an elevational gradient of 2530 m - 3430m, and contain a total of 8,200 plants with 120 genotypes. In each garden, half of the siblings of each family experienced early snow removal, whereas the other half experienced natural snowmelt. We found significant genetic variation in trichome density in the lower elevation gardens. Similarly, trichome density varied with garden, suggesting that environment influences trait expression. Finally, we found that across all gardens, low elevation genotypes had much higher trichome density than high elevation genotypes.

Local Knowledge Graph (9 entities)

Related Works

Items connected by shared entities, co-authorship, citations, or semantic similarity.

References (17)

1 in Knowledge Hub, 16 external