The significance of genetic diversity in agriculture can never be undermined. The diversity of crop plants in specific areas prevents pathogens in wiping out all species.
A team of Yale University researchers studied pathogens in natural plant habitat. The common belief is that common species are wiped out by pathogens to maintain diversity. The unfamiliar field of study involves what happens to pathogens that harm only some plants within a species.
The Yale scientists discovered that tree seedlings grow better if located under a different individual of the same species than when it is placed under the mother tree. Excluding all other factors, these researchers concluded that growth differences were caused by specialized microbial pathogens at the level of genotypes. Models about this theory showed that plant diversity can be maintained through these specialized pathogens.
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published their study. Liza Comita is the team leader and is an assistant professor of tropical forest ecology at F&ES.
"We often think of pathogens as pests," said Jenalle Eck, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich and a former visiting doctoral student at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES), "but we're finding that they play a key role in a highly diverse ecosystem."
The study utilized a shadehouse set-up with more than 200 seedlings of the Panama-grown tropical tree Virola surinamensis. The pots had soil that came from other trees of the same species or from the maternal tree of the seedlings.
Camille Delavaux, a University of Kansas doctorate student, documented that the seedlings performance growth in maternal and non-maternal soil is not influenced in the beneficial symbiotic relationships with fungi or variations in soil nutrients.
These microbes lead to increased dispersal of seed and promote coexistence of species. This was discovered through the computer simulation models designed by Simon Stump.
"These results suggest that highly specialized pathogens are potentially an important, but largely overlooked driver of plant population and community dynamics," said Comita. "Our findings underscore the importance of conserving both.
