Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T04:54:38.218Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Allometric relationships between diaspore morphology and diaspore covering anatomy of herbaceous species from central-eastern Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 June 2016

Thomas Kuhn ,
Enikő I. Fodor ,
Septimiu Tripon ,
László Fodorpataki ,
Annamária Fenesi  and
Eszter Ruprecht
Thomas Kuhn*
Affiliation:
Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Republicii street 42, Cluj-Napoca, RO-400015, Romania
Enikő I. Fodor
Affiliation:
Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Republicii street 42, Cluj-Napoca, RO-400015, Romania
Septimiu Tripon
Affiliation:
Electron Microscopy Center, Babeş-Bolyai University, Clinicilor street 5-7, Cluj-Napoca, RO-400006, Romania
László Fodorpataki
Affiliation:
Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Republicii street 42, Cluj-Napoca, RO-400015, Romania
Annamária Fenesi
Affiliation:
Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Republicii street 42, Cluj-Napoca, RO-400015, Romania
Eszter Ruprecht
Affiliation:
Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Republicii street 42, Cluj-Napoca, RO-400015, Romania Institute of Ecology and Botany, MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Alkotmány út 2-4, Vácrátót, HU-2163, Hungary
*
*Correspondence Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Anatomical and morphological seed traits are of great ecological importance and are a main subject of, for example, seed bank or endozoochory studies. However, we observed a lack of information about the relationship between seed anatomy and seed morphology and its ecological implications. To fill this gap, we linked the anatomical features of diaspore coverings to morphological characteristics of free seeds and one-seeded fruits. We predicted that: (1) the thickness and anatomical complexity of seed coat and pericarp are related to diaspore size and shape; and (2) the presence or absence of the pericarp may influence seed-coat thickness and anatomy. In our study we investigated diaspores of 39 central-eastern European herbaceous species and recorded the thickness and anatomical complexity of their seed coverings, and we determined diaspore mass and shape. Our results indicate that diaspore mass is positively related to covering thickness, lignification degree and anatomical complexity. This might be the case because bigger diaspores tend to remain on the soil surface and are more exposed to predation risk and environmental threat than smaller diaspores. Furthermore, more round-shaped diaspores had disproportionately thicker and more lignified coverings than long or flat ones, probably because round-shaped diaspores much more frequently form seed banks and therefore persist for a long time in the soil. We also found that free seeds as diaspores have a thicker and more lignified seed coat than seeds enclosed in fruits. In one-seeded fruits, the pericarp ‘takes the protective role’, it is thick, and the seed coat is poorly developed.

Keywords

one-seeded fruitpericarpseed coatseed ecologyseed shapeseed size
Type
Research Papers
Information
Seed Science Research , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 264 - 272
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abràmoff, M.D., Magalhães, P.J. and Ram, S.J. (2004) Image processing with ImageJ. Biophotonics International 11, 36–42.Google Scholar
Alcántara, J.M., Rey, P.J., Sánchez-Lafuente, A.M. and Valera, F. (2000) Early effects of rodent post-dispersal seed predation on the outcome of the plant–seed disperser interaction. Oikos 88, 362–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aniszewski, T., Kupari, M.H. and Leinonen, A.J. (2001) Seed number, seed size and seed diversity in Washington Lupin (Lupinus polyphyllus Lindl.). Annals of Botany 87, 77–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baskin, C.C. and Baskin, J.M. (2001) Seeds: ecology, biogeography, and evolution of dormancy and germination. San Diego, USA, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Baskin, J.M., Baskin, C.C. and Li, X. (2000) Taxonomy, anatomy and evolution of physical dormancy in seeds. Plant Species Biology 15, 139–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bekker, R.M., Bakker, J.P., Grandin, U., Kalamees, R., Milberg, P. and Poschlod, P. (1998) Seed size, shape and vertical distribution in the soil: indicators of seed longevity. Functional Ecology 12, 834–842.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bercu, R. and Broasca, L. (2012) Compartive histoanatomical aspects of the fruit of some Apiaceae Lindl. Fruit used for therapeutic purposes. Annals of Romanian Society for Cell Biology 17, 265–270.Google Scholar
Bond, W.J., Honig, M. and Maze, K.E. (1999) Seed size and seedling emergence: an allometric relationship and some ecological implications. Oecologia 120, 132–136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Calvino, C., Martinez, S.G. and Downie, S.R. (2008) Morphology and biogeography of Apiaceae subfamily Saniculiodeae as inferred by phylogenetic analysis of molecular data. American Journal of Botany 95, 196–214.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cerabolini, B., Ceriani, R.M., Caccianiga, M., Andreis, R. and Raimondi, B. (2003) Seed size, shape and persistence in soil: a test on Italian flora from Alps to Mediterranean coasts. Seed Science Research 13, 75–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Csontos, P. and Tamás, J. (2003) Comparisons of soil seed bank classification systems. Seed Science Research 13, 101–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daws, M.I., Garwood, N.C. and Pritchard, H.W. (2005) Traits of recalcitrant seeds in a semi-deciduous forest in Panamá: some ecological implications. Functional Ecology 19, 874–885.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daws, M.I., Garwood, N.C. and Pritchard, H.W. (2006) Prediction of desiccation sensitivity in seeds of woody species: a probabilistic model based on two seed traits and 104 species. Annals of Botany 97, 667–674.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dubbern De Souza, F. and Marcos-Filho, J. (2001) The seed coat as a modulator of seed–environment relationships in Fabaceae. Brazilian Journal of Botany 24, 365–375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fahn, A. and Werker, E. (1972) Anatomical mechanisms of seed dispersal. pp. 152–222 in Kozlowski, T.T. (Ed.) Seed biology: Importance, development and germination, vol.1., physiological ecology. New York, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Fenner, M. (1983) Relationships between seed weight, ash content and seedling growth in twenty four species of Compositae. New Phytologist 95, 697–706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenner, M. (2000) Seeds: the ecology of regeneration in plant communities. Wallingford, UK, CABI Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finch-Savage, W. and Metzger, G.L. (2006) Seed dormancy and the control of germination. New Phytologist 171, 501–523.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gashaw, N. and Michelsen, A. (2002) Influence of heat shock on seed germination of plants from regularly burnt savanna woodlands and grasslands in Ethiopia. Plant Ecology 159, 83–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gómez-González, S., Torres-Díaz, C., Bustos-Schindler, C. and Gianoli, E. (2011) Anthropogenic fire drives the evolution of seed traits. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 108, 18743–18747.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graeber, K., Linkies, A., Wood, A.T.A. and Leubner-Metzger, G. (2011) A guideline to family-wide comparative state-of-the-art quantitative RT-PCR analysis exemplified with a Brassicaceae cross-species seed germination case study. Plant Cell 23, 2045–2063.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graeber, K., Nakabayashi, K., Miatton, E., Leubner-Metzger, G. and Soppe, W.J.J. (2012) Molecular mechanisms of seed dormancy. Plant, Cell and Environment 35, 1769–1786.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hermann, K., Meinhard, J., Dobrev, P., Linkies, A., Pesek, P., Hesl, B., Machackova, I., Fischer, U. and Leubner-Metzger, G. (2007) 1-Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid and abscisic acid during the germination of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.): a comparative study of fruits and seeds. Journal of Experimental Botany 58, 3047–3060.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, J.P., Eduards, W. and Frank, P.J. (2012) Size is not everything for desiccation-sensitive seeds. Journal of Ecology 100, 1131–1140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Honek, A. and Martinkova, Z. (2003) Seed consumption by ground beetles. Crop Science and Technology 1, 451–456.Google Scholar
Howe, H.F. and Smallwood, J. (1982) Ecology of seed dispersal. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 13, 201–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulme, P.E. (1998) Post-dispersal seed predation and seed bank persistence. Seed Science Research 8, 513–519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jakobsson, A. and Eriksson, O. (2000) A comparative study of seed number, seed size, seedling size and recruitment in grassland plants. Oikos 88, 494–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, K.M., Van Staden, J. and Bell, W.E. (1992) Seed coat structure and dormancy. Plant Growth Regulation 11, 201–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linkies, A. and Leubner-Metzger, G. (2012) Beyond gibberellins and abscisic acid: how ethylene and jasmonates control seed germination. Plant Cell Reports 31, 253–270.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Linkies, A., Graeber, K., Knight, C. and Leubner-Metzger, G. (2010) The evolution of seeds. New Phytologist 186, 817–831.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lobiuc, A., Zamfirache, M.M. and Ivănescu, L. (2012) Comparative anatomical investigations of some species of the genus Angelica L. Contribuţii Botanice 47, 67–72.Google Scholar
Lundgren, G.J. (2009) Relationships of natural enemies and non-prey foods. Dordrecht, The Netherlands, Springer International.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundgren, J.G. and Rosentrater, K.A. (2007) The strength of seeds and their destruction by granivorous insects. Arthropod–Plant Interactions 1, 93–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, A.C. (1946) The comparative internal morphology of seeds. American Midland Naturalist 36, 513–660.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinez, I., Garcia, D. and Obeso, J.R. (2007) Allometric allocation in fruit and seed packaging conditions: the conflict among selective pressures on seed size. Evolutionary Ecology 21, 517–533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matías, L., Mendoza, I. and Zamora, R. (2009) Consistent pattern of habitat and species selection by post-dispersal seed predators in a Mediterranean mosaic landscape. Plant Ecology 203, 137–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moles, A.T., Hodson, D.W. and Webb, C.J. (2000). Seed size and shape and persistence in the soil in the New Zealand flora. Oikos 89, 541–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moles, A.T., Ackerly, D.D., Webb, C.O., Tweddle, J.C., Dickie, J.B. and Westoby, M. (2005) A brief history of seed size. Science 307, 576–580.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morris, K., Linkies, A., Muller, K., Oracz, K., Wang, X., Lynn, J.R., Leubner-Metzger, G. and Finch-Savage, W.E. (2011) Regulation of seed germination in the close Arabidopsis relative Lepidium sativum: A global tissue-specific transcript analysis. Plant Physiology 155, 1851–1870.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morrison, J.E.J., Williams, D.F., Oi, D.H. and Potter, K.N. (1997) Damage to dry crop seed by red imported fire ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Economic Entomology 90, 218–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norden, N., Daws, M.I., Antoine, C., Gonzalez, M.A., Garwood, N.C. and Chave, J. (2008) The relationship between seed mass and mean time to germination for 1037 tree species across five tropical forests. Functional Ecology 23, 203–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, T.R.H., Burslem, D.F.R.P., Mullins, C.E. and Dalling, J.W. (2002) Germination ecology of neotropical pioneers: interacting effects of environmental conditions and seed size. Ecology 83, 2798–2807.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petri, G. (1979) Drogatlasz (Drogok mikroszkópos vizsgálata). Budapest, Medicina Könyvkiadó.Google Scholar
R Development Core Team. (2012) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria, R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Available at http://www.R-project.org/ (accessed 18 May 2016).Google Scholar
Rees, M. (1996) Evolutionary ecology of seed dormancy and seed size. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences 351, 1299–1308.Google Scholar
Rodriguez-Pontes, M. (2008) Seed formation in two species of Adesmia (Fabaceae): co-occurrence of micropylar and lateral endosperm haustoria in legumes and its taxonomic value. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 158, 602–612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rolston, M.P. (1978) Water impermeable seed dormancy. The Botanical Review 44, 365–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salvatore, R., Moya, D., Pulido, L., Lovreglio, R., Lopez-Serrano, F.R., De las Heras, J. and Leone, V. (2010) Morphological and anatomical differences in aleppo pine seeds from serotinous and non-serotinous cones. New Forests 39, 329–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tămaş, M. (2004) Botanică Farmaceutică, vol. 2. Cluj- Napoca, Tipografia U.M.F. ‘Iuliu Haţieganu’.Google Scholar
Thompson, K. and Rabinovitz, D. (1989) Do big plants have big seeds? The American Naturalist 133, 722–728.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, K., Band, S.R. and Hodgson, J.G. (1993) Seed size and shape predict persistence in soil. Functional Ecology 7, 236–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toma, C. and Rugină, R. (1998) Anatomia plantelor medicinale (Atlas). Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române.Google Scholar
Tsou, C.H. and Mori, S.A. (2002) Seed coat anatomy and its relationship to seed dispersal in subfamily Lecythidoideae of the Lecythidaceae (The Brazilian Nut family). Botanical Bulletin of Academia Sinica 43, 37–53.Google Scholar
Tutin, T.G., Heywood, V.H., Burges, N.A., Moore, D.M., Valentine, D.H., Walters, S.M. and Webb, D.A. (1964–1980) Flora Europaea, vols 1–5. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Venable, D.L. and Brown, J.S. (1988) The selective interactions of dispersal, dormancy and seed size as adaptations for reducing risk in variable environments. The American Naturalist 131, 360–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weitbrecht, K., Muller, K. and Leubner-Metzger, G. (2011) First off the mark: early seed germination. Journal of Experimental Botany 62, 3289–3309.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Werker, E. (1997) Seed anatomy. Berlin, Gebrüder Borntraeger.Google Scholar
Widodo, P., Hartana, A. and Chikmawati, T. (2009) Correlations between degree of petal fusion, leaf size and fruit size: a case in Syzygium (Myrtaceae). Biodiverzitas 10, 120–123.Google Scholar
Yang, X., Baskin, J.M., Baskin, C.C. and Huang, Z. (2012) More than just a coating: ecological importance, taxonomic occurrence and phylogenetic relationships of seed coat mucilage. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 14, 434–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, H. and Zhang., Z. (2008) Endocarp thickness affects seed removal speed by small rodents in a warm-temperate broad-leafed deciduous forest, China. Acta Oecologica 34, 3285–3293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar