The findings from a recent study highlight that when a plant species dedicates more resources to its defense mechanisms, it tends to compromise its growth potential. This research, bolstered by open science, offers fresh perspectives on how plants adapt and vary between species.
Recent research indicates that greater investment in defense by a plant species correlates with reduced growth potential. This study, facilitated by open science, brings valuable insights into how plants adapt and how they differ from one another.
Pathogens can severely impact the health of their host plants, sometimes leading to death. However, there is significant diversity among species in their levels of investment in disease defenses. The theory of evolution suggests that the costs associated with resource allocation influence these defense investments, yet empirical testing of this concept has proven difficult.
In a study published in Science, postdoctoral researcher Michael Giolai and Professor of Plant Biodiversity Anna-Liisa Laine from the University of Helsinki utilized open databases to investigate plant defense genes and growth characteristics across 184 plant species. They observed notable differences among species regarding the number of defense genes, which varied from 44 to 2,256. For instance, while asparagus has only 72 resistance genes, a particular chili variety boasts 1,095. The researchers also found a negative relationship between the investment in defense and the growth characteristics of wild plants: as the percentage of a plant’s genome devoted to defense genes increases, its growth potential diminishes.
“Our findings highlight the important role of allocation costs in shaping and preserving biodiversity. They also provide insight into the factors that limit the evolution of defense mechanisms,” states Michael Giolai.
Allocation costs involve the trade-offs in how an organism distributes its resources across various life functions. In plants, this means that a high investment in defenses can deplete resources (such as energy and nutrients) that would otherwise contribute to growth. Essentially, plants face a challenge in balancing their resource use, which can result in a scenario where enhanced defenses lead to stunted growth, or the opposite might occur.
The research also looked at cultivated plants, which are bred for specific traits. In these instances, the study did not find a negative correlation between growth and defense, because selective breeding has minimized the natural genetic variation found within crop plants.
Giolai and Laine’s study exemplifies the promise of open science. Sequencing the genomes of many plant species and gathering data on their growth traits would be unfeasible for a single research team. The rise of open data fosters new research avenues that deepen our understanding of interspecies variation.
“To grasp the mechanisms that sustain differences in traits among species, a multi-species approach like this is crucial. The expanding availability of open data allows for unprecedented levels of inquiry into these matters,” remarks Anna-Liisa Laine.
