Divergence in Plant Traits and Increased Modularity Underlie Repeated Transitions Between Low and High Elevations in the Andean Genus Leucheria.

ABSTRACT: Understanding why some plant lineages move from one climatic region to another is a mayor goal of evolutionary biology. In the southern Andes plant lineages that have migrated along mountain ranges tracking cold-humid climates coexist with lineages that have shifted repeatedly between warm-arid at low elevations and cold habitats at high elevations. Transitions between habitats might be facilitated by the acquisition of common traits favoring a resource-conservative strategy that copes with drought resulting from either low precipitation or extreme cold. Alternatively, transitions might be accompanied by phenotypic divergence and accelerated evolution of plant traits, which in turn may depend on the level of coordination among them. Reduced integration and evolution of traits in modules ar

SUBMITTER: Perez F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7287153 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature