Abstract
To comprehend how mistletoes affect their host functioning is a key matter in plant ecology. As yet, it is not clear whether the impact of mistletoes is confined to infected branches or the entire host is compromised as well. Here, we compared leaf functional traits between branches infected by mistletoes (infected), uninfected branches yet close to mistletoe attachment (neighbour), and branches of trees without any mistletoe (control). Our model species pairs were Phoradendron crassifolium infecting Eremanthus erythropappus tree and Psittacanthus robustus infecting Vochysia thyrsoidea tree. The study was carried out in the Brazilian savannah, Cerrado. We found that neighbour branches of E. erythropappus suffered a greater reduction in specific leaf area compared to infected branches. Control branches occupied an intermediary position between infected and neighbour branches. On the other hand, both infected and neighbouring branches of V. thyrsoidea suffered a reduction in carbon assimilation rate compared to control trees. As far as we know, our study is the first to describe the presence of mistletoe affecting the healthy branches neighbouring the mistletoe attachment. This finding sheds light on the need to consider both infected and neighbouring branches when evaluating the effects of parasitism on tropical trees.
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All data used in this study were made available in the supplementary material.
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The codes used in this study will be made available upon request to the author of correspondence.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the colleagues in van den Berg’s lab for helping in the fieldwork and with data processing. We thank prof. Marines Pires for lending us the SPAD and IRGA equipment. We thank William Ribeiro and Marcio Pereira for their help during fieldwork. We thank Luciano Querido for helping with image processing. We thank Marcela Castro, Jean Marcel, prof. Chris Lusk, and prof. Alastair Robertson for commenting on manuscript previous versions. We also thank UFLA, CAPES, CNPq, and FAPEMIG for supporting van den Berg’s lab.
Funding
This study was supported by the Minas Gerais State Research Support Foundation (Grant CRA PPM-00374/13), National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Grant 478086/2008-3), and São Paulo Research Foundation (Grant BP/MS 19/24619-6).
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MCS, SSB, and GST had the study conception. MCS, SBB, and AFG did the data collection. EVDB and EMC provided the resources for data collection and processing. MCS and AFG led the manuscript preparation. All the authors participated in the manuscript revisions.
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Communicated by Elizabeth Pringle.
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Silva, M.C., Guimarães, A.F., Teodoro, G.S. et al. The enemy within: the effects of mistletoe parasitism on infected and uninfected host branches. Plant Ecol 222, 639–645 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-021-01132-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-021-01132-6