| Title: | Adaptation to pollination by fungus gnats underlies the evolution of pollination syndrome in the genus Euonymus |
| Author(s): | Mochizuki K; Okamoto T; Chen KH; Wang CN; Evans M; Kramer AT; Kawakita A; |
| Address: | "Botanical Gardens, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 3-7-1 Hakusan, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University, Yanagido 1-1, Gifu, Japan. Department of Ecology and Evolution, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. Department of Life Science, Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan. Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, IL 60022, USA" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1095-8290 (Electronic) 0305-7364 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Dipteran insects are known pollinators of many angiosperms, but knowledge on how flies affect floral evolution is relatively scarce. Some plants pollinated by fungus gnats share a unique set of floral characters (dark red display, flat shape and short stamens), which differs from any known pollination syndromes. We tested whether this set of floral characters is a pollination syndrome associated with pollination by fungus gnats, using the genus Euonymus as a model. METHODS: The pollinator and floral colour, morphology and scent profile were investigated for ten Euonymus species and Tripterygium regelii as an outgroup. The flower colour was evaluated using bee and fly colour vision models. The evolutionary association between fungus gnat pollination and each plant character was tested using a phylogenetically independent contrast. The ancestral state reconstruction was performed on flower colour, which is associated with fungus gnat pollination, to infer the evolution of pollination in the genus Euonymus. KEY RESULTS: The red-flowered Euonymus species were pollinated predominantly by fungus gnats, whereas the white-flowered species were pollinated by bees, beetles and brachyceran flies. The colour vision analysis suggested that red and white flowers are perceived as different colours by both bees and flies. The floral scents of the fungus gnat-pollinated species were characterized by acetoin, which made up >90 % of the total scent in three species. Phylogenetically independent contrast showed that the evolution of fungus gnat pollination is associated with acquisition of red flowers, short stamens and acetoin emission. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the observed combination of floral characters is a pollination syndrome associated with the parallel evolution of pollination by fungus gnats. Although the role of the red floral display and acetoin in pollinator attraction remains to be elucidated, our finding underscores the importance of fungus gnats as potential contributors to floral diversification" |
| Keywords: | Euonymus Acetoin Celastraceae phylogeny pollination by fungus gnat pollination syndrome pollinator shift red flower; |
| Notes: | "PublisherMochizuki, Ko Okamoto, Tomoko Chen, Kai-Hsiu Wang, Chun-Neng Evans, Matthew Kramer, Andrea T Kawakita, Atsushi eng 18H06075/Research Activity/ 20K15859/Young Scientists/ 15H04421/Scientific Research/ England 2023/08/23 Ann Bot. 2023 Aug 23:mcad081. doi: 10.1093/aob/mcad081" |
