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Phenotypic plasticity accounts for most of the variation in leaf manganese concentrations in Phytolacca americana growing in manganese-contaminated environments

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Abstract

Background and aims

Phytolacca americana, a globally invasive species, is able to flourish in heavy metal-contaminated habitats. To improve understanding of the adaptive evolutionary mechanisms of plants under heavy metal stress, we investigated key factors contributing to variation in leaf manganese (Mn) content in P. americana.

Methods

Genetic surveys and common garden experiments were conducted simultaneously in an analysis of P. americana populations growing on Mn-contaminated and uncontaminated soil.

Results

Our field survey detected a significant relationship between leaf Mn concentrations in P. americana and concentrations in the soils from which plants were collected. Microsatellite analyses identified low levels of genetic diversity within and between populations; 32 of 39 populations (82 %) were genetically monomorphic. No genetic differentiation was detected between populations from contaminated and uncontaminated soils. Our common garden experiments showed that Mn concentrations in P. americana were related only to the growth habitat, regardless of the origin of the seeds.

Conclusions

Combining the results of our ecological and genetic analyses, we concluded that genetic variation is not likely to be responsible for the wide ecological distribution of P. americana in China. Rather, phenotypic plasticity is probably the major contributor to its successful colonisation of stressful habitats, such as heavy metal-contaminated soils.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31400328), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20140697), China’s Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2014 M560428) and Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (1402155C).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, People’s Republic of China

    Chen Chen, Aiguo Wang, Min Lu & Zhenguo Shen

  2. Asian Natural Environmental Science Center, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-8 Midori-cho, Nishitokyo, Tokyo, 188-0002, Japan

    Chunlan Lian

  3. College of Agricultural, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, 471003, People’s Republic of China

    Hongxiao Zhang

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  1. Chen Chen
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  2. Hongxiao Zhang
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  3. Aiguo Wang
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  4. Min Lu
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  5. Zhenguo Shen
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  6. Chunlan Lian
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Correspondence to Zhenguo Shen or Chunlan Lian.

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Chen, C., Zhang, H., Wang, A. et al. Phenotypic plasticity accounts for most of the variation in leaf manganese concentrations in Phytolacca americana growing in manganese-contaminated environments. Plant Soil 396, 215–227 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2581-7

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