Shifts and disruptions in resource-use trait syndromes during the evolution of herbaceous crops.

ABSTRACT: Trait-based ecology predicts that evolution in high-resource agricultural environments should select for suites of traits that enable fast resource acquisition and rapid canopy closure. However, crop breeding targets specific agronomic attributes rather than broad trait syndromes. Breeding for specific traits, together with evolution in high-resource environments, might lead to reduced phenotypic integration, according to predictions from the ecological literature. We provide the first comprehensive test of these hypotheses, based on a trait-screening programme of 30 herbaceous crops and their wild progenitors. During crop evolution plants became larger, which enabled them to compete more effectively for light, but they had poorly integrated phenotypes. In a subset of six herbaceous crop s

SUBMITTER: Milla R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4173681 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature