Pollinator insects accelerate the evolution of plants
Published: Wednesday, Jun 19th 2024, 10:51
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Bumblebees accelerate the evolution of plants. In an experiment, plants pollinated by insects adapted more quickly to different soil types than plants that were pollinated by hand, the University of Zurich reported on Wednesday.
Rapid adaptation is of great importance for the survival of many organisms in the face of regional and global changes, write researchers led by Florian Schiestl from the University of Zurich in a study published in the journal "Nature Communications". However, little is known about how quickly such an adaptation can take place and which genes change in the process.
To find out more, the researchers grew around 800 swedes on different types of soil in a greenhouse for two years. Some of the plants were pollinated by bumblebees, others by hand.
After two years, the plants pollinated by bumblebees differed depending on the soil type on which they grew. There were no significant differences in the groups of plants that were pollinated by hand.
According to the University of Zurich, this shows that interactions with other living organisms influence how plants adapt to non-living environmental conditions such as climate or soil type.
During the analysis, the researchers also found genes that could be important for this adaptation.
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