ADAPTATION IN THE WILD

Adjustments of growth, physiology and morphology in plants are among the best understood examples of phenotypic plasticity in the wild. Although plants accept environmental cues at the level of individual modules (leaves, branches, or roots), they have to integrate distinct environmental information to produce functionally coordinated phenotypes, in spite the fact that some of environmental factors may change the transduction process of another factor(s), due to overlapping hormonal or genetic components. Thus, plant development involves a continuous feedback between the developmental processes and the environment, giving rise to an array of functional phenotypes (morphological, anatomical, and physiological) that reproduce differentially, depending upon their interaction with the environment. In this project, an integrative 'eco-devo' approach will be applied to a perennial rhizomatous herb Iris pumila L., naturally growing under contrasting light conditions (a sun-exposed and a shaded habitat) in the Deliblato Sands (Serbia). The investigations will be focused to four experimental themes: 1. The morphological, anatomical, physiological, and biochemical responses of I. pumila to sesonal variation in their abiotic environments: a comparison of populations from alternative light habitats, 2. Testing the hypotheses about local adaptation at all hierarchycal level – from proteins to phenotypes - in foliage of I. pumila genotypes within their native light habitats, by using a areciprocal transplant experiments and/or a common garden experiment, 3. Floral organ developmental instability (DI; small random perturbations due to stochastic nature of cellular processes during flower development): heritability of DI; impacts of HSP90, micro-environmental variation, and flower color on the extent of floral DI, measuring radial and fluctuating asimetry.

According to results obtained in reciprocal transplants experiments conducted in the wild, the seasonal variation in the trait values is expected to reflect acclimatization to extant environmental contexts, while the differences between habitats could be the outcome of divergent selection. Conversely, developmental instability (random perturbations due to stochastic nature of cellular processes) is supposed to be trait-specific and shaped by both environmental factors and the endogenous content of molecular chaperons.

Project team:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., project leader

Dr. Jelica Lazarević

Dr. Darka Šešlija Jovanović

Dr. Sanja Manitašević Jovanović

Dr. Ana Vuleta

Dr. Uroš Savković

Dr. Mirko Đorđević

Dr. Sanja Budečević 

Katarina Hočevar
Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.