The effect of drought stress on heterozygosity-fitness correlations in pedunculate oak (Quercus robur).

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

The interaction between forest fragmentation and predicted climate change may pose a serious threat to tree populations. In small and spatially isolated forest fragments, increased homozygosity may directly affect individual tree fitness through the expression of deleterious alleles. Climate change-induced drought stress may exacerbate these detrimental genetic consequences of forest fragmentation, as the fitness response to low levels of individual heterozygosity is generally thought to be stronger under environmental stress than under optimal conditions.

Methods

To test this hypothesis, a greenhouse experiment was performed in which various transpiration and growth traits of 6-month-old seedlings of Quercus robur differing in multilocus heterozygosity (

SUBMITTER: Vranckx G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3997642 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature