Phylogenetic history of vascular plant metabolism revealed using a macroevolutionary common garden.

ABSTRACT: While the fundamental biophysics of C₃ photosynthesis is highly conserved across plants, substantial leaf structural and enzymatic variation translates into variability in rates of carbon assimilation. Although this variation is well documented, it remains poorly understood how photosynthetic rates evolve, and whether macroevolutionary changes are related to the evolution of leaf morphology and biochemistry. A substantial challenge in large-scale comparative studies is disentangling evolutionary adaptation from environmental acclimation. We overcome this by using a 'macroevolutionary common garden' approach in which we measured metabolic traits (J_max and V_cmax) from 111 phylogenetically diverse species in a shared environment. We find substant

SUBMITTER: Neto-Bradley BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8170189 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature