Population differentiation in arthropod community structure and phenotypic association with inducible defense genes in European Aspen (Populus tremula L., salicaceae)

• Plant-herbivore interactions are known to vary across a landscape due to both variation in abiotic and biotic factors. Such spatial variation tends to promoting local adaption of plants to the prevailing herbivore regime. Here we use data from a common garden to look for patterns across populations in the abundance and diversity of herbivorous insects. We also screen for variation in the untargeted metabolome of the foliage of a subset of the same trees. We also search for phenotypic associations between genetic variation in a number of wound-induced genes and phenotypic variation in herbivore abundance, diversity and in metabolomes. We observe significant genetic variation in a number of herbivore-related traits but low correlations between traits. We do observe substantial genetic structure in both herbivore community structure and in metabolic profiles and this structure is aligned with genetic structure we have previously documented for a set of defense genes. We also identify a number of significant associations between SNPs from wound-induced defense genes and a number of the herbivore traits and metabolic profiles. However, these associations are likely not causal, but are rather caused by the underlying population structure we observe. These results highlight to the importance of historical processes and the need to better understand both the current-day geographic distribution of different herbivore species as well as the post-glacial colonization history of both plants and herbivores.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Genetik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Genetics (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Evolutionsbiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Evolutionary Biology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Ekologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Ecology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

adaptation

arthropod community

population structure

association mapping

Populus

evolutionär genetik

evolutionary genetics

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

ovr (ämneskategori)