title: Developmental Control and Plasticity of Fruit and Seed Dimorphism in Aethionema arabicum.
abstract: Understanding how plants cope with changing habitats is a timely and important topic in plant research. Phenotypic plasticity describes the capability of a genotype to produce different phenotypes when exposed to different environmental conditions. In contrast, the constant production of a set of distinct phenotypes by one genotype mediates bet hedging, a strategy that reduces the temporal variance in fitness at the expense of a lowered arithmetic mean fitness. Both phenomena are thought to represent important adaptation strategies to unstable environments. However, little is known about the underlying mechanisms of these phenomena, partly due to the lack of suitable model systems. We used phylogenetic and comparative analyses of fruit and seed anatomy, biomechanics, physiology, and environmental responses to study fruit and seed heteromorphism, a typical morphological basis of a bet-hedging strategy of plants, in the annual Brassicaceae species Aethionema arabicum Our results indicate that heteromorphism evolved twice within the Aethionemeae, including once for the monophyletic annual Aethionema clade. The dimorphism of Ae. arabicum is associated with several anatomic, biomechanical, gene expression, and physiological differences between the fruit and seed morphs. However, fruit ratios and numbers change in response to different environmental conditions. Therefore, the life-history strategy of Ae. arabicum appears to be a blend of bet hedging and plasticity. Together with the available genomic resources, our results pave the way to use this species in future studies intended to unravel the molecular control of heteromorphism and plasticity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Friedrich Schiller University, 07743 Jena, Germany (T.L., F.R., G.T.).
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lenser
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Plant Molecular Science and Centre for Systems and Synthetic Biology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom (K.G., C.S., T.S., G.L.-M.).
authors.forename: Kai
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2948-0856
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Graeber
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin University, 33343 Mersin, Turkey (Ö.S.C.).|Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin University, 33343 Mersin, Turkey (Ö.S.C.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Özge Selin
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2211-7600
authors.initials: ÖS
authors.lastname: Cevik
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Science Faculty, Gazi University, 06500 Teknikokullar, Ankara, Turkey (N.A.).|Department of Biology, Science Faculty, Gazi University, 06500 Teknikokullar, Ankara, Turkey (N.A.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Nezaket
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Adigüzel
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Hacettepe University, 06800 Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey (A.A.D.).|Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Hacettepe University, 06800 Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey (A.A.D.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ali A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Dönmez
authors.affiliation: Plant Cell Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Marburg, 35043 Marburg, Germany (C.G., S.A.R.).|Plant Cell Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Marburg, 35043 Marburg, Germany (C.G., S.A.R.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Grosche
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Botany, University of Osnabrück, 49076 Osnabrueck, Germany (M.K., S.M.-Q., K.S., N.W., K.M.).|Department of Biology, Botany, University of Osnabrück, 49076 Osnabrueck, Germany (M.K., S.M.-Q., K.S., N.W., K.M.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kettermann
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Botany, University of Osnabrück, 49076 Osnabrueck, Germany (M.K., S.M.-Q., K.S., N.W., K.M.).|Department of Biology, Botany, University of Osnabrück, 49076 Osnabrueck, Germany (M.K., S.M.-Q., K.S., N.W., K.M.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mayland-Quellhorst
authors.affiliation: Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Biocenter, 1030 Vienna, Austria (Z.M., O.M.S.).|Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Biocenter, 1030 Vienna, Austria (Z.M., O.M.S.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Zsuzsanna
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2048-1628
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Mérai
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Botany, University of Osnabrück, 49076 Osnabrueck, Germany (M.K., S.M.-Q., K.S., N.W., K.M.).|Biosystematics Group, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands (S.M., T.-P.N., M.E.S.); and.|Department of Biology, Botany, University of Osnabrück, 49076 Osnabrueck, Germany (M.K., S.M.-Q., K.S., N.W., K.M.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.|Biosystematics Group, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands (S.M., T.-P.N., M.E.S.); and gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Setareh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mohammadin
authors.affiliation: Biosystematics Group, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands (S.M., T.-P.N., M.E.S.); and.|Biosystematics Group, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands (S.M., T.-P.N., M.E.S.); and gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Thu-Phuong
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3492-1062
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Friedrich Schiller University, 07743 Jena, Germany (T.L., F.R., G.T.).|Department of Genetics, Friedrich Schiller University, 07743 Jena, Germany (T.L., F.R., G.T.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rümpler
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Plant Molecular Science and Centre for Systems and Synthetic Biology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom (K.G., C.S., T.S., G.L.-M.).|School of Biological Sciences, Plant Molecular Science and Centre for Systems and Synthetic Biology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom (K.G., C.S., T.S., G.L.-M.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2103-8879
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schulze
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Botany, University of Osnabrück, 49076 Osnabrueck, Germany (M.K., S.M.-Q., K.S., N.W., K.M.).|Department of Biology, Botany, University of Osnabrück, 49076 Osnabrueck, Germany (M.K., S.M.-Q., K.S., N.W., K.M.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sperber
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Plant Molecular Science and Centre for Systems and Synthetic Biology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom (K.G., C.S., T.S., G.L.-M.).|School of Biological Sciences, Plant Molecular Science and Centre for Systems and Synthetic Biology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom (K.G., C.S., T.S., G.L.-M.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Tina
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3282-6029
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Steinbrecher
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Botany, University of Osnabrück, 49076 Osnabrueck, Germany (M.K., S.M.-Q., K.S., N.W., K.M.).|Department of Biology, Botany, University of Osnabrück, 49076 Osnabrueck, Germany (M.K., S.M.-Q., K.S., N.W., K.M.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Nils
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wiegand
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Growth Regulators, Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research, Palacký University and Institute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 78371 Olomouc, Czech Republic (M.S., G.L.-M.).|Laboratory of Growth Regulators, Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research, Palacký University and Institute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 78371 Olomouc, Czech Republic (M.S., G.L.-M.) gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Miroslav
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2806-794X
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Strnad
authors.affiliation: Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Biocenter, 1030 Vienna, Austria (Z.M., O.M.S.).|Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Biocenter, 1030 Vienna, Austria (Z.M., O.M.S.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ortrun Mittelsten
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7757-4809
authors.initials: OM
authors.lastname: Scheid
authors.affiliation: Plant Cell Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Marburg, 35043 Marburg, Germany (C.G., S.A.R.).|Plant Cell Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Marburg, 35043 Marburg, Germany (C.G., S.A.R.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Stefan A
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0225-873X
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Rensing
authors.affiliation: Biosystematics Group, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands (S.M., T.-P.N., M.E.S.); and.|Biosystematics Group, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands (S.M., T.-P.N., M.E.S.); and gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Michael Eric
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6777-6565
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Schranz
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Friedrich Schiller University, 07743 Jena, Germany (T.L., F.R., G.T.).|Department of Genetics, Friedrich Schiller University, 07743 Jena, Germany (T.L., F.R., G.T.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Günter
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4854-8692
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Theißen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Botany, University of Osnabrück, 49076 Osnabrueck, Germany (M.K., S.M.-Q., K.S., N.W., K.M.).|Department of Biology, Botany, University of Osnabrück, 49076 Osnabrueck, Germany (M.K., S.M.-Q., K.S., N.W., K.M.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8449-1593
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mummenhoff
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Plant Molecular Science and Centre for Systems and Synthetic Biology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom (K.G., C.S., T.S., G.L.-M.).|Laboratory of Growth Regulators, Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research, Palacký University and Institute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 78371 Olomouc, Czech Republic (M.S., G.L.-M.).|School of Biological Sciences, Plant Molecular Science and Centre for Systems and Synthetic Biology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom (K.G., C.S., T.S., G.L.-M.); gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.|Laboratory of Growth Regulators, Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research, Palacký University and Institute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 78371 Olomouc, Czech Republic (M.S., G.L.-M.) gerhard.leubner@rhul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6045-8713
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Leubner-Metzger
mesh_terms: D019607:Brassicaceae / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000648:ultrastructure; D015536:Down-Regulation / Q000235:genetics; D005638:Fruit / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D050437:Genes, Developmental; D017343:Genes, Plant; D018525:Germination / Q000235:genetics; D008954:Models, Biological; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D058614:Seed Dispersal; D012639:Seeds / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000648:ultrastructure; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins