Evolvability and trait function predict phenotypic divergence of plant populations

Abstract

Understanding the causes and limits of population divergence in phenotypic traits is a fundamental aim of evolutionary biology, with the potential to yield predictions of adaptation to environmental change. Reciprocal transplant experiments and the evaluation of optimality models suggest that local adaptation is common but not universal, and some studies suggest that trait divergence is highly constrained by genetic variances and covariances of complex phenotypes. We analyze a large database of population divergence in plants and evaluate whether evolutionary divergence scales positively with standing genetic variation within populations (evolvability), as expected if genetic constraints are evolutionarily important. We further evaluate differences in divergence and evolvability-divergence relationships between reproductive and vegetative traits and between selling, mixed-mating, and outcrossing species, as these factors are expected to influence both patterns of selection and evolutionary potentials. Evolutionary divergence scaled positively with evolvability. Furthermore, trait divergence was greater for vegetative traits than for floral (reproductive) traits, but largely independent of the mating system. Jointly, these factors explained similar to 40% of the variance in evolutionary divergence. The consistency of the evolvability-divergence relationships across diverse species suggests substantial predictability of trait divergence. The results are also consistent with genetic constraints playing a role in evolutionary divergence.

Keywords

adaptation; evolvability; genetic constraints; macroevolution

Published in

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
2023, volume: 120, number: 1, article number: e2203228120
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences

SLU Authors

• Lankinen, Åsa

  • Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Genetics
Evolutionary Biology

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2203228120

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/129480