Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Transgenerational plasticity in clonal plants

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Evolutionary Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Transgenerational plasticity has recently been recognized as a mechanism allowing phenotypic adjustments to local conditions to be passed onto sexually produced offspring. Although thus far it has been studied mainly in non-clonal plants, the present paper proposes that transgenerational plasticity is also applicable to asexually generated progeny, and that it can have multiple consequences for clonal plants. Indeed, in clonal plants, local phenotypic adjustment transferred to the next generation—whether produced sexually or asexually—can provide a mechanism that assists the population better exploit spatial heterogeneity. Moreover, this concept provides a framework allowing investigation of how long environmental heterogeneity will affect growth of asexually as well as sexually generated progeny.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aarssen LW, Burton SM (1990) Maternal effects at four levels in Senecio vulgaris (Asteraceae) grown on a soil nutrient gradient. Am J Bot 77:1231–1240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agrawal AA (2002) Herbivory and maternal effects: mechanisms and consequences of transgenerational induced plant resistance. Ecology 83:3408–3415

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agrawal AA, Laforsch C, Tollrian R (1999) Transgenerational induction of defences in animals and plants. Nature 401:60–63

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Alpert P (1996) Nutrient sharing in natural clonal fragments of Fragaria chiloensis. J Ecol 84:395–406

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alpert P, Stuefer JF (1997) Division of labour in clonal plants. In: de Kroon H, van Groenendael J (eds) The ecology and physiology of clonal plants. Backhuys, Leiden, pp 137–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen D (1966) Optimizing reproduction in a randomly varying environment. J Theor Biol 12:119–129

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crean AJ, Marshall DJ (2009) Coping with environmental uncertainty: dynamic bet hedging as a maternal effect. Phil Trans R Soc B 364:1087–1096

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • de Kroon H, Fransen B, van Rheenen JWA, van Dijk A, Kreulen R (1996) High levels of inter-ramet water translocation in two rhizomatous Carex species, as quantified by deuterium labeling. Oecologia 106:73–84

    Google Scholar 

  • Donohue K, Schmitt J (1998) Maternal environmental effects in plants: adaptive plasticity? In: Mousseau TA, Fox CW (eds) Maternal effects as adaptation. Oxford Univ. Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fagerström T, Briscoe DA, Sunnucks P (1998) Evolution of mitotic cell-lineages in multicellular organisms. Trends Ecol Evol 13:117–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galloway LF, Etterson JR (2007) Transgenerational plasticity is adaptive in the wild. Science 318:1134–1136

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gómez S, Latzel V, Verhulst Y, Stuefer JF (2007) Costs and benefits of induced resistance in a clonal plant network. Oecologia 153:921–930

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hutchings MJ, Wijesinghe DK (2008) Performance of a clonal species in patchy environments: effects of environmental context on yield at local and whole-plant scales. Evol Ecol 22:313–324

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jablonka E, Raz G (2009) Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: prevalence, mechanisms, and implications for the study of heredity and evolution. Quart Rev Biol 84:131–176

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Janeček Š, Kantorová J, Bartoš M, Klimešová J (2008) Integration in the clonal plant Eriophorum angustifolium: an experiment with a three-member-clonal system in a patchy environment. Evol Ecol 22:325–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johansen L (2009) Clonal growth strategies in simultaneously persistent and expanding Trifolium repens patches. Plant Ecol 201:435–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirkpatrick M, Lande R (1989) The evolution of maternal characters. Evolution 43:485–503

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klimešová J, Klimeš L (2006) CLO-PLA3—a database of clonal plants in central Europe. URL: http://www.clopla.butbn.cas.cz [Institute of Botany, AS CR]

  • Lacey EP, Herr D (2000) Parental effects in Plantago lanceolata L. III. Measuring parental temperature effects in the field. Evolution 54:1207–1217

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Latzel V, Klimešová J (2009) Fitness of resprouters versus seeders in relation to nutrient availability in two Plantago species. Acta Oecol 35:541–547

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latzel V, Hájek T, Klimešová J, Gómez S (2009) Nutrients and disturbance history in two Plantago species: maternal effects as a clue for observed dichotomy between resprouting and seeding strategies. Oikos 118:1669–1678

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latzel V, Klimešová J, Hájek T, Gómez S, Šmilauer P (2010) Maternal effects alter progeny’s response to disturbance and nutrients in two Plantago species. Oikos. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0706.2010.18737.x

  • Lovett Doust L (1981) Intraclonal variation and competition in Ranunculus repens. New Phytol 89:495–502

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magyar G, Kun A, Oborny B, Stuefer JF (2007) Importance of plasticity and decision-making strategies for plant resource acquisition in spatio-temporally variable environments. New Phytol 174:182–193

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McKey D, Elias M, Pujol B, Duputie A (2010) The evolutionary ecology of clonally propagated domesticated plants. New Phytol. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03210.x

  • Miao SL, Bazzaz FA, Primack RB (1991a) Effects of maternal nutrient pulse on reproduction of two colonizing Plantago species. Ecology 72:586–596

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miao SL, Bazzaz FA, Primack RB (1991b) Persistence of maternal nutrient effects in Plantago major: the third generation. Ecology 72:1642–1643

    Google Scholar 

  • Philippi T, Seger J (1989) Hedging one’s evolutionary bets, revisited. Trends Ecol Evol 4:41–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Räsänen K, Kruuk LEB (2007) Maternal effects and evolution at ecological time-scales. Funct Ecol 21:408–421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riska B (1989) Composite traits, selection response, and evolution. Evolution 43:1172–1191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roiloa SR, Alpert P, Tharayil N, Hancock G, Bhowmik PC (2007) Greater capacity for division of labour in clones of Fragaria chiloensis from patchier habitats. J Ecol 95:397–405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwaegerle KE, McIntyre H, Swingley C (2000) Quantitative genetics and the persistence of environmental effects in clonally propagated organisms. Evolution 54:452–461

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seger J, Brockmann HJ (1987) What is bet-hedging? Oxf Surv Evol Biol 4:182–211

    Google Scholar 

  • Silander JA (1985) The genetic-basis of the ecological amplitude of Spartina patens II. Variance and correlation-analysis. Evolution 39:1034–1052

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stuefer JF (1998) Two types of division of labour in clonal plants: benefits, costs and constraints. Perspect Plant Ecol Evol Syst 1:47–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stuefer JF, Hutchings MJ (1994) Environmental heterogeneity and clonal growth: a study of the capacity for reciprocal translocation in Glechoma hederacea L. Oecologia 100:302–308

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sultan SE (1996) Phenotypic plasticity for offspring traits in Polygonum persicaria. Ecology 77:1791–1807

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sultan SE, Barton K, Wilczek A (2009) Contrasting patterns of transgenerational plasticity in ecologically distinct congeners. Ecology 90:1831–1839

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas RG, Hay MJM (2008) Adaptive variation in physiological traits underpinning stem elongation responses among nodally-rooting stoloniferous herbs. Evol Ecol 22:369–381

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wade MJ (1998) The evolutionary genetics of maternal effects. In: Mousseau TA, Fox CW (eds) Maternal effects as adaptations. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolf JB, Wade MJ (2009) What are maternal effects (and what are they not)? Phil Trans R Soc 364:1107–1115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang L, HE W (2009) Consequences of ramets helping ramets: No damage and increased nutrient use efficiency in nurse ramets of Glechoma longituba. Flora 204:182–188

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are deeply indebted to Jonathan Rosenthal and two anonymous for their insightful comments and for improving the English. The study was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic research program no. AV0Z60050516, grant nos. GD206/08/H044, GA526/09/0963 and P505/10/P173.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Zámek 1, CZ-252 43, Průhonice, Czech Republic

    Vít Latzel

  2. Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Dukelská 135, CZ-379 82, Třeboň, Czech Republic

    Jitka Klimešová

Authors
  1. Vít Latzel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jitka Klimešová
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vít Latzel.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Latzel, V., Klimešová, J. Transgenerational plasticity in clonal plants. Evol Ecol 24, 1537–1543 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-010-9385-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-010-9385-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation