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Local edaphic adaptation in the Minuartia verna group
Koberová, Tereza ; Chrtek, Jindřich (advisor) ; Vít, Petr (referee)
Plants that have adapted their metabolism to life in soils containing heavy metals are suitable candidates for studying local adaptation. Although soils containing heavy metals and the plants that grow in them have attracted the attention of botanists for several decades, there is a lack of studies that address the ecological-evolutionary questions related to the pre-adaptation of plants to these challenging conditions. This work focuses on the species Minuartia verna, which includes populations growing in mine dumps, populations growing in serpentinite, and populations growing in non-toxic substrates. Local adaptation and pre-adaptation were studied using a reciprocal experiment involving populations representing each of the three aforementioned groups. I measured several vegetative and generative plant traits, fitness was then calculated based on these traits. A comparison of plant fitness of the populations grown in different soils suggests that non-metallicolous populations are not pre-adapted to grow in soils contaminated with heavy metals. However, all populations thrived well in serpentine soil, indicating a genetic adaptation to this substrate. The analysis of metal content in plants indicates that they function as excluders of Ni and Pb, with higher concentrations of these metals found in...
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Local adaptation of natural population of Arabidopsis arenosa to serpentine soil
Lamotte, Timothée ; Kolář, Filip (advisor) ; Chrtek, Jindřich (referee)
Arabidopsis arenosa represents a promising model for studying the mechanisms underlying the adaptation to serpentine soil. Genetic basis of serpentine adaptation is still poorly known and A. arenosa possesses many advantages as a tool to complete that knowledge. The first step of this study was to reveal the presence of a local adaptation to serpentine soil in a population of A. arenosa. To do so, I used the data from a reciprocal transplant experiment realized between a Czech pair of serpentine - non-serpentine populations and I explored the phenotypes associated with the adaptation. Subsequently, I produced the F2 hybrids coming from crosses between serpentine - non-serpentine parents and I studied the expression of fitness traits in F2 plants growing in serpentine in order to estimate the number of loci underlying the adaptation which I compared with other studies. I confirmed the presence of a local adaptation, with the population of serpentine origin performing better than the non-serpentine population in the serpentine substrate of origin, associated with accumulation of heavy metals in the leaves. Analyses of the soil composition revealed differences in heavy metals and nutrients contents, Ca/Mg ratio and pH between the two localities. Those results fitted with the function of the candidate...
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The patterns of local adaptation to serpentine bedrock in plant populations
David, Jan ; Čertner, Martin (advisor) ; Konečná, Veronika (referee)
The most important abiotic factors of serpentine habitats are lack of water, low content of main nutrients, high magnesium content and a high concentration of heavy metals. Thus, serpentine soils are a very stressful environment for most plant. For their exceptional characteristics, serpentine sites are suitable for the study of evolutionary processes. The present literary review contains a summary of the main topics related to the issue of plant populations growing on serpentine bedrock. In addition, the mechanisms of the local adaptation and the conditions that allows these processes are analyzed. At the end of the thesis, the ecological aspect of the habitats is discussed, which can serve as areas with reduced competition and provide the living space to the competitively weaker species. Due to the specific conditions at the serpentine areas, these areas are characterized by a higher level of endemism and often serve as a refuge for relict species. Keywords: Serpentinophyte, serpentine, serpentine endemism, local adaptation, substratum specialization
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The patterns of local adaptation to serpentine bedrock in plant populations
David, Jan ; Čertner, Martin (advisor) ; Prančl, Jan (referee)
For sessile organisms such as plants, substrate specialization acts a very important role, because plants have no choice when choosing a suitable substrate. Plants can respond very specifically to substrate, and local adaptations often begin to emerge, especially if their substrate composition is completely different from the parent substrate in which the plant grows usually. The thesis deals specifically with the problem of serpentine populations, the challenges that these plants have to deal with, and the local adaptations that arise in these populations. Keywords: Serpentinophyte, serpentine, serpentine endemism, local adaptation
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Ecology of the pathosystem of anther smut on Dianthus carthusianorum
Koupilová, Klára ; Koubek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Dostál, Petr (referee)
Anther smuts (Microbotryum violaceum s.l.) represent a well-known system for studying pathogens of wild plants and coevolution between pathogens and hosts. Infected plants produce sterile flowers with anthers filled with fungal spores which are transmitted to other host plants by pollinators. Data from existing research come mainly from the genus Silene. However, the applicability of these findings to other host plants of anther smuts is largely unknown. Therefore, this thesis focuses on a different host species - Dianthus carthusianorum. First, the pattern of disease was surveyed in natural populations of D. carthusianorum in a small area in Střední Povltaví. Most populations were infected to various degrees and only a few populations remained completely healthy. The prevalence of disease was positively correlated with size and density of host populations. On the other hand, environmental factors and the degree of connectedness had very little effect on disease prevalence. Second, additional data were collected from a subset of populations to determine plant resistance and densities of pollinators. Differences in resistance among populations (as inferred from flower inoculations) were not significant. Populations differed in densities of pollinators, but there was no correlation between densities...
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Role of phenotypic plasticity, genetic and epigenetic differentiation in ecophysiological traits of Festuca rubra L. in response to climate change
Koláříková, Veronika ; Münzbergová, Zuzana (advisor) ; Schnablová, Renata (referee)
Understanding the ability of species to respond to climate change is essential for prediction of their future distribution. When migration is not adequate, reaction via phenotypic plasticity and/or genetic/epigenetic adaptation is necessary. The main aim of this study is to determine mechanisms of response to climate change in dominant grass species Festuca rubra. The study used reciprocal transplant experiment with growth chambers simulating different climatic conditions. Original localities in western Norway represent factorially crossed gradients of temperatures and precipitations, thus it was possible to study the effect of temperature and moisture separately as well as combined. In first part of the experiment, plastic responses were separated from genetic differentiation. To do this, plants with different genotypes from original localities were transplanted to growth chambers set to simulating temperature and moisture course in the four extreme localities (wettest and driest combined with warmest and coldest). After five months, ecophysiological photosynthetic-related traits were measured. These traits are important for species ability to adapt and maintain high fitness and thus they are essential for plants function. Specifically, it was net photosynthetic rate (PN), fluorescence of...
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