Phenotypic Plasticity, Parental Effects, and Parental Care in Plants: An Examination of Spike Reflectance in Plantago lanceolata

University Of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro NC

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Lacey will address fundamental questions about plant reflectance patterns. Previous experiments with Plantago lanceolata show that during the flowering season, 1) warm temperatures produce higher quality offspring than do cool temperatures and 2) the reproductive structures in P. lanceolata adjust the amount of incoming solar radiation that they reflect (and conversely absorb) in response to prevailing temperature. For example, when temperatures are low, developing flowers and fruits produce pigments that reduce reflectance and increase absorption. Dr. Lacey will measure the effects of this plastic response in reflectance pattern on seed quantity and offspring quality, and she will test the hypothesis that this plasticity in reflectance is adaptive, in other words, that by adjusting reflectance, parents thermoregulate fertilization and early offspring development to enhance seed production and offspring quality. Dr. Lacey will also test the hypothesis that populations from different latitudes and altitudes differ genetically in overall reflectance pattern. There are two practical aspects of the experiments. First, experiments will explicitly examine how reflectance helps plants thermoregulate seed production and quality, which are of agronomic as well as evolutionary importance. Because current knowledge about thermoregulation in plants is negligible, P. lanceolata will serve as a model organism for collecting data that can later be applied to crop species. Second, the data will improve our understanding of how seed production and quality in natural and crop populations will respond to global warming.