Long-term morphological stasis maintained by a plant-pollinator mutualism.

ABSTRACT: Many major branches in the Tree of Life are marked by stereotyped body plans that have been maintained over long periods of time. One possible explanation for this stasis is that there are genetic or developmental constraints that restrict the origin of novel body plans. An alternative is that basic body plans are potentially quite labile, but are actively maintained by natural selection. We present evidence that the conserved floral morphology of a species-rich flowering plant clade, Malpighiaceae, has been actively maintained for tens of millions of years via stabilizing selection imposed by their specialist New World oil-bee pollinators. Nine clades that have lost their primary oil-bee pollinators show major evolutionary shifts in specific floral traits associated with oil-bee pollinati

SUBMITTER: Davis CC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4000796 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature