Background

Light is an important environmental factor affecting the growth and survival of plants in forest communities. The competition for light resources and divergent responses to light may affect plant species co-existence in natural forests through niche partitioning and environmental filtering, respectively.

Methods

In the present study, sequences of light-response-related functional genes were extracted from transcriptomic data of 99 tree species in a subtropical forest and average and nearest taxon phylogenetic diversity of adult (A_Apd’, A_NTpd’) and seedling neighbors (S_Apd’, S_NTpd’) around each focal seedling were calculated to evaluate effects of differentiation in light-response-related genes on community assembly processes.

Results

The results showed that seedling survival was related to S_NTpd’, S_ Apd’ and A_Apd’ of two chlorophyll ab-binding proteins involved in the assembly of photosystem II and two genes responsive to light intensity, indicating seedlings surrounded by neighbors with distinct light responses tended to have high survival rates.

Conclusions

Our results indicated that niche partitioning due to competition for light resources between plants may act as the key mechanism in determining seedling dynamics in subtropical forests.

中文翻译：

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光响应相关直系同源基因的功能系统发育对亚热带森林幼苗存活的影响

背景

光是影响森林群落植物生长和生存的重要环境因素。对光资源的竞争和对光的不同反应可能分别通过生态位划分和环境过滤影响天然林中植物物种的共存。

方法

在本研究中，从亚热带森林 99 种树种的转录组数据以及成年树种 (A_Apd', A_NTpd') 和幼苗近邻 (S_Apd',计算每个焦点幼苗周围的 S_NTpd')，以评估光响应相关基因分化对群落组装过程的影响。

结果

结果表明，幼苗存活率与参与光系统 II 组装的两种叶绿素 ab 结合蛋白的 S_NTpd'、S_Apd' 和 A_Apd' 以及两个光强响应基因相关，表明被具有不同光响应的邻居包围的幼苗倾向于要有高存活率。

结论

我们的研究结果表明，由于植物之间对光资源的竞争而导致的生态位划分可能是决定亚热带森林幼苗动态的关键机制。