Can functional genomic diversity provide novel insights into mechanisms of community assembly? A pilot study from an invaded alpine streambed.

Autor: Marx HE; Department of Biology & Museum of Southwestern Biology University of New Mexico Albuquerque New Mexico USA., Carboni M; Department of Sciences Università Roma TRE Roma Italy., Douzet R; CNRS Lautaret Jardin du Lautaret Université Grenoble Alpes Grenoble France., Perrier C; CNRS Lautaret Jardin du Lautaret Université Grenoble Alpes Grenoble France., Delbart F; CNRS Lautaret Jardin du Lautaret Université Grenoble Alpes Grenoble France., Thuiller W; Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine (LECA) CNRS Université Grenoble Alpes Université Savoie Mont Blanc Grenoble France., Lavergne S; Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine (LECA) CNRS Université Grenoble Alpes Université Savoie Mont Blanc Grenoble France., Tank DC; Department of Biological Sciences University of Idaho Moscow Idaho USA.; Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies University of Idaho Moscow Idaho USA.; Stillinger Herbarium University of Idaho Moscow Idaho USA.; Present address: Department of Botany and Rocky Mountain Herbarium University of Wyoming Laramie WY 82072-3165 USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Ecology and evolution [Ecol Evol] 2021 Aug 04; Vol. 11 (17), pp. 12075-12091. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Aug 04 (Print Publication: 2021).
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7973
Abstrakt: An important focus of community ecology, including invasion biology, is to investigate functional trait diversity patterns to disentangle the effects of environmental and biotic interactions. However, a notable limitation is that studies usually rely on a small and easy-to-measure set of functional traits, which might not immediately reflect ongoing ecological responses to changing abiotic or biotic conditions, including those that occur at a molecular or physiological level. We explored the potential of using the diversity of expressed genes-functional genomic diversity (FGD)-to understand ecological dynamics of a recent and ongoing alpine invasion. We quantified FGD based on transcriptomic data measured for 26 plant species occurring along adjacent invaded and pristine streambeds. We used an RNA-seq approach to summarize the overall number of expressed transcripts and their annotations to functional categories, and contrasted this with functional trait diversity (FTD) measured from a suite of characters that have been traditionally considered in plant ecology. We found greater FGD and FTD in the invaded community, independent of differences in species richness. However, the magnitude of functional dispersion was greater from the perspective of FGD than from FTD. Comparing FGD between congeneric alien-native species pairs, we did not find many significant differences in the proportion of genes whose annotations matched functional categories. Still, native species with a greater relative abundance in the invaded community compared with the pristine tended to express a greater fraction of genes at significant levels in the invaded community, suggesting that changes in FGD may relate to shifts in community composition. Comparisons of diversity patterns from the community to the species level offer complementary insights into processes and mechanisms driving invasion dynamics. FGD has the potential to illuminate cryptic changes in ecological diversity, and we foresee promising avenues for future extensions across taxonomic levels and macro-ecosystems.
Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to claim in the publication of this research.
(© 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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