Increasing Aridity May Threaten the Maintenance of a Plant Defence Polymorphism.

It is unclear how environmental change influences standing genetic variation in wild populations. Here, we characterised environmental conditions that protect versus erode polymorphic chemical defences in Boechera stricta (Brassicaceae), a short-lived perennial wildflower. By manipulating drought and herbivory in a 4-year field experiment, we measured the effects of driver variation on vital rates of genotypes varying in defence chemistry and then assessed interacting driver effects on total fitness (estimated as each genotype's lineage growth rate, λ) using demographic models.

Soil variation among natural habitats alters glucosinolate content in a wild perennial mustard.

Baseline levels of glucosinolates-important defensive phytochemicals in brassicaceous plants-are determined by both genotype and environment. However, the ecological causes of glucosinolate plasticity are not well characterized. Fertilization is known to alter glucosinolate content of Brassica crops, but the effect of naturally occurring soil variation on glucosinolate content of wild plants is unknown.

Are genetic variation and demographic performance linked?

Quantifying relationships between genetic variation and population viability is important from both basic biological and applied conservation perspectives, yet few populations have been monitored with both long-term demographic and population genetics approaches. To empirically test whether and how genetic variation and population dynamics are related, we present one such paired approach. First, we use eight years of historical demographic data from five populations of (Brassicaceae), a rare, self-compatible perennial plant endemic to Montana, USA, and use integral projection models to estimate the stochastic population growth rate ( ) and extinction risk of each population.

The Boechera model system for evolutionary ecology.

Model systems in biology expand the research capacity of individuals and the community. Closely related to Arabidopsis, the genus Boechera has emerged as an important ecological model owing to the ability to integrate across molecular, functional, and eco-evolutionary approaches. Boechera species are broadly distributed in relatively undisturbed habitats predominantly in western North America and provide one of the few experimental systems for identification of ecologically important genes through genome-wide association studies and investigations of selection with plants in their native habitats.

Adaptive responses drive the success of polyploid yellowcresses (, Brassicaceae) in the Hengduan Mountains, a temperate biodiversity hotspot.

Polyploids contribute substantially to plant evolution and biodiversity; however, the mechanisms by which they succeed are still unclear. According to the , successful polyploids spread by repeated adaptive responses to new environments. Here, we tested this hypothesis using two tetraploid yellowcresses (), the endemic and the widespread , in the temperate biodiversity hotspot of the Hengduan Mountains.