New paper out in Ecosphere
Photo by Aramee Diethelm
New paper led by graduate student Aramee Diethelm
A new paper out this month from Aramee Diethelm’s dissertation, with former lab members Audrey Marlar and James Farlin as co-authors, investigates the responses of milkweeds to acute water stress in plants sourced from sites in northern Nevada and California with different climatic histories. Plants sourced from drier sites contained higher concentrations of flavonol glycosides, compounds that may defend the plant against water stress by acting as antioxidants. In contrast, plants from wetter sites exhibited higher induction of flavonol glycosides under acute water stress in a glasshouse experiment. The result is that variation among populations in flavonol glycoside concentrations was reduced under water stress.
““[The] results suggest that local adaptation in plants can shape phytochemical strategies for water limitation but that the cost of metabolite production may ultimately limit the range of phytochemical variation.””