Data from: Soil microbes alter plant fitness under competition and drought

Fitzpatrick, Connor, University of Toronto

Mustafa, Zainab, University of Toronto

Viliunas, Joani, University of Toronto

Published Feb 08, 2019 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.334765v

Cite this dataset

Fitzpatrick, Connor; Mustafa, Zainab; Viliunas, Joani (2019). Data from: Soil microbes alter plant fitness under competition and drought [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.334765v

Abstract

Plants exist across varying biotic and abiotic environments, including variation in the composition of soil microbial communities. The ecological effects of soil microbes on plant communities are well known, whereas less is known about their importance for plant evolutionary processes. In particular, the net effects of soil microbes on plant fitness may vary across environmental contexts and among plant genotypes, setting the stage for microbially mediated plant evolution. Here we assess the effects of soil microbes on plant fitness and natural selection on flowering time in different environments. We performed two experiments in which we grew Arabidopsis thaliana genotypes replicated in either live or sterilized soil microbial treatments, and across varying levels of either competition (isolation, intraspecific competition, or interspecific competition) or watering (well-watered or drought). We found large effects of competition and watering on plant fitness as well as the expression and natural selection of flowering time. Soil microbes increased average plant fitness under interspecific competition and drought, and shaped the response of individual plant genotypes to drought. Finally, plant tolerance to either competition or drought was uncorrelated between soil microbial treatments suggesting that the plant traits favoured under environmental stress may depend on the presence of soil microbes. In summary, our experiments demonstrate that soil microbes can have large effects on plant fitness, which depend on both the environment and individual plant genotype. Future work in natural systems is needed for a complete understanding of the evolutionary importance of interactions between plants and soil microorganisms.

Usage notes

R_script

R script used for analyses and production of figures.

AEG_code.R

full_data_comp

Data from experiment 1. ID = experimental object identifier; tray = experimental tray in which individual plant was held; fruit.focal.main = number of fruit on the main shoot of the focal plant; fruit.focal.second = number of fruit on the secondary shoots of the focal plant; fruit.comp.main = number of fruit on the main shoot of the competitor plant; fruit.focal.second = number of fruit on the secondary shoots of the competitor plant; Counter = fruit counter; flower.time.focal = date of flower of the focal plant; flower.time.comp = date of flower of the competitor.

full_data_drought

Fitness and flowering data for experiment 2. accession = plant genotype; water = watering treatment; microbe = microbe treatment; replicate = replicate number; tray = experimental tray in which individual pot was held; shelf = shelf on growth chamber rack; rack = growth chamber rack; fruit = number of fruit; flowering = Julian flower date; counter = experimental fruit counter; source = source of seed stock used in experiment.

seed.count.comp

Seed counts from fruit from individual genotypes. genotype = plant genotype; mean = mean seed across 5 fruits from 5 individuals.

seed.count.drought

Average seed counts from 5 fruit from 5 individual genotypes. genotype = plant genotype; mean.wet = mean seed from 5 fruit from 5 individuals in the well watered treatment; mean.dry = mean seed from 5 fruit from 5 individuals in the drought treatment.