Transgressivity in Key Functional Traits Rather Than Phenotypic Plasticity Promotes Stress Tolerance in A Hybrid Cordgrass.

ABSTRACT: Hybridization might promote offspring fitness via a greater tolerance to environmental stressors due to heterosis and higher levels of phenotypic plasticity. Thus, analyzing the phenotypic expression of hybrids provides an opportunity to elucidate further plant responses to environmental stress. In the case of coastal salt marshes, sea level rise subjects hybrids, and their parents, to longer tidal submergence and higher salinity. We analyzed the phenotypic expression patterns in the hybrid Spartina densiflora x foliosa relative to its parental species, native S. foliosa, and invasive S. densiflora, from the San Francisco Estuary when exposed to contrasting salinities and inundations in a mesocosm experiment. 37% of the recorded traits displayed no variability among parents and hybrids, 3%

SUBMITTER: Gallego-Tevar B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6963473 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature