Specialization-generalization trade-off in a Bradyrhizobium symbiosis with wild legume hosts.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Specialized interactions help structure communities, but persistence of specialized organisms is puzzling because a generalist can occupy more environments and partake in more beneficial interactions. The "Jack-of-all-trades is a master of none" hypothesis asserts that specialists persist because the fitness of a generalist utilizing a particular habitat is lower than that of a specialist adapted to that habitat. Yet, there are many reasons to expect that mutualists will generalize on partners.Plant-soil feedbacks help to structure plant and microbial communities, but how frequently are soil-based symbiotic mutualistic interactions sufficiently specialized to influence species distributions and community composition? To address this question, we quantified realized partn

SUBMITTER: Ehinger M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4021497 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature