Interactions of inbreeding and stress by poor host quality in a root hemiparasite.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Populations of many hemiparasitic plants are fragmented and threatened by inbreeding depression (ID). In addition, they may also be strongly affected by a lack of suitable host species. However, nothing is known about possible interactive effects of inbreeding and host quality for parasitic plants. Poor host quality represents a special type of biotic stress and the magnitude of ID is often expected to be higher in more stressful environments.

Methods

We studied the effects of inbreeding and the quality of host species for the declining root hemiparasite Rhinanthus alectorolophus Selfed and open-pollinated parasites from two natural populations were grown (1) with 13 potential host species and (2) with 15 four-species mixtures.

Key results

ID diffe

SUBMITTER: Sandner TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5218370 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature