Mutualism breakdown in breadfruit domestication
During the process of plant domestication, below-ground communities are rarely considered. Some studies have attempted to understand the changes in root symbionts owing to domestication, but little is known about how it influences mycorrhizal response in domesticated crops. We hypothesized that sele...
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Published in | Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Vol. 279; no. 1731; pp. 1122 - 1130 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
Royal Society
22.03.2012
The Royal Society |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | During the process of plant domestication, below-ground communities are rarely considered. Some studies have attempted to understand the changes in root symbionts owing to domestication, but little is known about how it influences mycorrhizal response in domesticated crops. We hypothesized that selection for above-ground traits may also result in decreased mycorrhizal abundance in roots. Breadfruit (Artocarpus sp.) has a long domestication history, with a strong geographical movement of cultivars from west to east across the Melanesian and Polynesian islands. Our results clearly show a decrease in arbuscular mycorrhizas (AMs) along a domestication gradient from wild to recently derived cultivars. We showed that the vesicular and arbuscular colonization rate decreased significantly in more recently derived breadfruit cultivars. In addition, molecular analyses of breadfruit roots indicated that AM fungal species richness also responded along the domestication gradient. These results suggest that human-driven selection for plant cultivars can have unintended effects on below-ground mutualists, with potential impacts on the stress tolerance of crops and long-term food security. |
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Bibliography: | href:rspb20111550.pdf istex:C150E02C669B9809AF2CDF0380C7DA878FB5A90A ark:/67375/V84-0ZBKTHM1-V ArticleID:rspb20111550 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-2 ObjectType-Feature-1 |
ISSN: | 0962-8452 1471-2954 |
DOI: | 10.1098/rspb.2011.1550 |