Close and distant: Contrasting the metabolism of two closely related subspecies of Scots pine under the effects of folivory and summer drought

Journal Article · Mon Sep 25 04:00:00 EDT 2017 · Ecology and Evolution

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3343· OSTI ID:1415088

Rivas-Ubach, Albert ^[1]; Sardans, Jordi ^[2]; Hódar, José Antonio ^[3]; Garcia-Porta, Joan ^[4]; Guenther, Alex ^[5]; Paša-Tolić, Ljiljana ^[6]; Oravec, Michal ^[7]; Urban, Otmar ^[7]; Peñuelas, Josep ^[2]

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1. Environmental Molecular Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland WA USA; CREAF, Bellaterra, Barcelona Spain
2. CREAF, Bellaterra, Barcelona Spain; CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF- CSIC-UAB, Bellaterra, Barcelona Spain
3. Grupo de Ecología Terrestre, Departamento de Biología Animal y Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Granada Spain
4. CREAF, Bellaterra, Barcelona Spain
5. Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine CA USA
6. Environmental Molecular Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland WA USA
7. Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Bělidla 986/4a 603 00 Brno Czech Republic

The metabolome, the chemical phenotype of an organism, should be shaped by evolution. Metabolomes depend on genetic composition and expression, which can be sources of evolutionary inertia, so most aspects of metabolomes should be similar in closely related sympatric species. We examined the metabolomes of two sympatric subspecies of Pinus sylvestris in Sierra Nevada (southern Iberian Peninsula), one introduced (ssp. iberica) and one autochthonous (ssp. nevadensis), in summer and winter and exposed to folivory by the pine processionary moth. The overall metabolomes differed between the subspecies but both tended to respond more similarly to folivory. The metabolomes of the subspecies were more dissimilar in summer than in winter, and iberica trees had higher concentrations of metabolites directly related to drought stress. Our results suggest that certain plant metabolic responses associated with folivory have been conserved throughout evolutionary history. The larger divergence between subspecies metabolomes in summer is likely due to the warmer and drier conditions that the northern iberica subspecies experience in Sierra Nevada. Our results provide crucial insights into how iberica populations would respond to the predicted conditions of climate change under an increased defoliation, two recent severe issues in the Mediterranean Basin.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US), Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1415088
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-121524; 48729; KP1704020
• Journal Information: Ecology and Evolution, Journal Name: Ecology and Evolution Journal Issue: 21 Vol. 7; ISSN 2045-7758
• Publisher: Wiley
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
Herbivorous attack
Pinus sylvestris
drought
evolutionary processes
folivory
metabolomics
processionary moth
sympatric subspecies