Effects of functional phylogeny of light-response-related orthologous genes on seedling survival in a subtropical forest

Hui Shang; Yunquan Wang; Baocai Han; Xiangcheng Mi; Lei Chen; Yu Liang; Keping Ma

doi:10.1016/j.fecs.2023.100087

Forest Ecosystems 2023, 10(1): 100087 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fecs.2023.100087

Research Article |

Open Access | Issue | Published: 09 January 2023

Effects of functional phylogeny of light-response-related orthologous genes on seedling survival in a subtropical forest

Show Author's Information Hide Author's Information Hui Shang^{^a^,^b^,^c}, Yunquan Wang^{^d}, Baocai Han^{^a^,^e}, Xiangcheng Mi^{^a}, Lei Chen^{^a}, Yu Liang^{^a}(

), Keping Ma^{^a^,^b}

State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Shanghai Chenshan Plant Science Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, Shanghai 201602, China

College of Chemistry and Life Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China

State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China

Keywords:

Forest communities, Species co-existence, Neighbor effects, Community genomics, Negative density dependence, Niche partitioning

Cite this article:

Shang H, Wang Y, Han B, et al. Effects of functional phylogeny of light-response-related orthologous genes on seedling survival in a subtropical forest. Forest Ecosystems, 2023, 10(1): 100087. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fecs.2023.100087

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Abstract Full text About this article

Abstract

Background

Light is an important environmental factor affecting the growth and survival of plants in forest communities. The competition for light resources and divergent responses to light may affect plant species co-existence in natural forests through niche partitioning and environmental filtering, respectively.

Methods

In the present study, sequences of light-response-related functional genes were extracted from transcriptomic data of 99 tree species in a subtropical forest and average and nearest taxon phylogenetic diversity of adult (A_Apd', A_NTpd') and seedling neighbors (S_Apd', S_NTpd') around each focal seedling were calculated to evaluate effects of differentiation in light-response-related genes on community assembly processes.

Results

The results showed that seedling survival was related to S_NTpd', S_ Apd' and A_Apd' of two chlorophyll ab-binding proteins involved in the assembly of photosystem II and two genes responsive to light intensity, indicating seedlings surrounded by neighbors with distinct light responses tended to have high survival rates.

Conclusions

Our results indicated that niche partitioning due to competition for light resources between plants may act as the key mechanism in determining seedling dynamics in subtropical forests.

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Abstract

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Outline

About this article

Effects of functional phylogeny of light-response-related orthologous genes on seedling survival in a subtropical forest

Show Author's information Hide Author's Information Hui Shang^{^a^,^b^,^c}, Yunquan Wang^{^d}, Baocai Han^{^a^,^e}, Xiangcheng Mi^{^a}, Lei Chen^{^a}, Yu Liang^{^a}(

), Keping Ma^{^a^,^b}

State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Shanghai Chenshan Plant Science Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, Shanghai 201602, China

College of Chemistry and Life Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China

State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Our results indicated that niche partitioning due to competition for light resources between plants may act as the key mechanism in determining seedling dynamics in subtropical forests.

Keywords: Forest communities, Species co-existence, Neighbor effects, Community genomics, Negative density dependence, Niche partitioning

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Acknowledgements

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Publication history

Received: 25 October 2022

Revised: 28 December 2022

Accepted: 28 December 2022

Published: 09 January 2023

Issue date: February 2023

Copyright

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the support from Zhejiang Qianjiangyuan Forest Biodiversity National Observation and Research Station and help from Xiaojuan Liu, Jiangshan Lai, Ke Cao, Zhiqing Xue, Jianhui Ma, Rui Zhang, Hui Shen and Yuehong Yan for their insightful advices and kind assistance for data analysis.

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This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).