Invasive legumes can associate with many mutualists of native legumes, but usually do not.

ABSTRACT: Mutualistic interactions can strongly influence species invasions, as the inability to form successful mutualisms in an exotic range could hamper a host's invasion success. This barrier to invasion may be overcome if an invader either forms novel mutualistic associations or finds and associates with familiar mutualists in the exotic range. Here, we ask (1) does the community of rhizobial mutualists associated with invasive legumes in their exotic range overlap with that of local native legumes and (2) can any differences be explained by fundamental incompatibilities with particular rhizobial genotypes? To address these questions, we first characterized the rhizobial communities naturally associating with three invasive and six native legumes growing in the San Francisco Bay Area. We then c

SUBMITTER: La Pierre KJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5648655 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature