H2020 KinCoop Project: Do plants cooperate in reproduction? The effect of sharing pollination services on plant reproductive strategies
- Type Project
- Status Filled
- Execution 2015 -2018
- Assigned Budget 272.480,4 €
- Scope Europeo
- Main source of financing H2020
- Project website KinCoop
During the development of this project, I conducted several experiments and theoretical studies to achieve the main objectives. In addition, I also performed several tasks related to professional development, outreach, and public engagement.
For WP1, we set out to comprehensively explore how the intraspecific social environment influenced the evolution of resource allocation for pollinator attraction in plants. To this end, we built a new model of evolutionarily stable strategies to obtain quantitative predictions of reproductive allocation considering plant neighborhood composition. This work has been carried out in collaboration with Dr. Mauricio González-Forero, currently working as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom. Using this theoretical model, we found that neighborhood density and genetic relatedness regulate the optimal investment in floral structures to attract pollinators. However, the form of this functional link between neighborhood density and genetic relatedness and optimal investment for pollinator attraction was shaped by different parameters that control intra- and intergroup competition between plants by pollinators. That is, our model predicts that plants should cooperate when they are surrounded by sisters, and the investment they make in their flowers helps them compete against other groups rather than competing with their sisters within the group.
In WP2, we set out to investigate the extent to which investment in advertising structures to attract pollinators (petal size, flower color, or nectar secretion) was a plastic response to changes in the social environment. To do this, I conducted a large common-garden experiment under controlled greenhouse conditions with over 30,000 seeds and 700 plants, where we characterized thousands of flowers. We grew potted plants in controlled neighborhoods with two levels of genetic relatedness (either sisters or genetically unrelated strangers) and three levels of density (one, four, or seven plants per pot) in a full factorial experimental design. The great success of this experiment allowed us to collect a large amount of data. We collected data on reproductive allocation, including plant size in terms of height and biomass, flowering time, number of flowers produced, corolla diameter, flower tube length, biomass allocated to petals, nectar volume and sugar concentration, quantitative color estimation using digital photographs, pollen production, and ovule number.
The main finding of this experiment was that focal plants modified their behavior based on the social context. That is, focal plants invested disproportionately more resources in floral advertising when they were growing with kin compared to when they were growing with strangers or alone. This result met the predictions of our theoretical model and supports the hypothesis that reproductive cooperation should be able to evolve in plants. The extraordinary relevance of these results allowed us to publish them as an article in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. This finding was covered by various general media outlets, and therefore the results were widely disseminated among the general public.
For WP3, I collaborated with Yves Cuendot (former lab technician in Pannell's group) and Dr. A. González-Megías from the University of Granada to develop new microsatellite markers for our model species Moricandia moricandioides L. These markers are essential for assessing mating patterns and male success. Finally, we conducted a field experiment (Baza, Spain) to explore the effect of plant groups on pollinator behavior. This required the presence of native pollinators, and we decided to conduct it in the field during flowering. This experiment was again conducted in collaboration with Dr. A. González-Megías, who has extensive experience with the same model species. This experiment showed that large plant groups attracted more pollinators but also affected their behavior in different aspects, such as the number of flowers visited, the time spent in the group, and the number of different individuals visited within the group.
KinCoop studied plant behavior in a social context in terms of their reproductive strategies. Plants can facilitate the pollination of their neighbors. I hypothesized that this process of sharing pollination services will influence plant reproduction, driving cooperative reproductive strategies.
The main objective of KinCoop was therefore to test whether natural selection can favor social behaviors (from selfish to cooperative) in plant reproduction, evaluating how different social environments, in terms of density and genetic relatedness of neighbors, could influence optimal allocation strategies through the effect of pollinator sharing and its effect on mating patterns and plant fitness.
The development of KinCoop has produced significant results that will impact the European Research Area and attitudes in European society. Specifically, the KinCoop results showed the first evidence that plants recognize their kin, modifying their flowering strategies accordingly, thus broadening our understanding of how plants reproduce.
Therefore, the social context of plants can have profound consequences for plant phenotypes, as well as for their performance and fitness. Future research should consider social selection theory in the research agenda of plant populations. All planned milestones have been reached, and the main result obtained during this action has been published in the prestigious multidisciplinary journal Nature Communication: Torices, R., Gómez, J.M., and Pannell, J.R. 2018. Kin discrimination allows plants to modify investment toward pollinator attraction. Nature Communications, 9, 2018.
KinCoop assessed important questions about social evolution in the context of reproductive strategies, which, surprisingly, have been little studied in plants. KinCoop thus contributes to our understanding of how plants cooperate during reproduction to alter population dynamics, with potentially useful results for plant conservation, weed control, and crop improvement.
Although social interactions in non-sentient beings, such as plants, may seem unlikely, there are good reasons to expect them to be important. Since plant populations are usually strongly genetically structured and neighboring plants are often kin, their behavior is expected to have been shaped by natural selection within this social context. Plants interact very strongly with their neighbors, and there is growing evidence demonstrating kin recognition and cooperation with kin, for example, warning against herbivore attacks and reducing competition for resources.
However, little is known about how plants behave in a social context in terms of their reproductive strategies. This is surprising because reproduction is a key life-history trait that defines gene transfer and is therefore closely linked to fitness and evolutionary potential, which will eventually determine the functioning and dynamics of plant populations and communities. Neighboring plants commonly facilitate pollination.
Therefore, resources invested in floral structures attractive to an individual can positively impact individual fitness, but also the fitness of neighbors, increasing both individual and group benefits. Natural selection should therefore be expected to favor plastic adjustments of resources allocated to attracting pollinators to the surrounding social environment.
I will test this hypothesis by assessing how different social environments might influence optimal allocation strategies and the effect this will have on mating patterns and plant fitness. To address this goal, I will use an interdisciplinary approach that combines theoretical models and empirical evidence, bringing tools from the sociological sciences to the study of plant ecology and evolution.
My project will contribute to our understanding of how plants cooperate during reproduction to alter plant population dynamics, with potentially useful outcomes for crop efficiency.
KinCoop has produced significant results that will impact the European Research Area and the mindset of European society. First, KinCoop's results showed the first evidence that plants could cooperate in reproduction, broadening our understanding of how they reproduce. Social context can have profound consequences for plant phenotypes, but also for their performance and biological fitness. Therefore, future research should consider social selection theory in the plant population research agenda.
Therefore, KinCoop results could be relevant to crop science. Since social context affects plant phenotypes and productivity, KinCoop results will boost research to improve crop efficiency by applying social theory to agronomic techniques. For this reason, I organized a workshop on the use of social evolution theory in crop improvement. In this workshop, various stakeholders (researchers from universities, agronomic centers, and companies in the agricultural sector) gathered at the EEZA-CSIC for a day to discuss how to implement KinCoop findings to improve crop productivity.
- CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS (CSIC)
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