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Biology subjects

Colligan, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Colligan, C..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

Heat alters fruit morphology and severely limits reproduction but not growth in a widespread urban weed.

O_LIRationale: Plants in urban environments often experience heat stress and responses to heat stress often include vegetative and reproductive traits like rosette width and fruit morphology. However, our understanding of natural variation in vegetative and reproductive traits in urban environments is severely limited. C_LIO_LIMethods: We grew an urban weed, Capsella bursa-pastoris, in common garden environments that simulate an urban heat gradient to determine how heat affected growth, survival and reproduction. Additionally, we used geometric morphometric techniques alongside deterministic techniques to quantify variation in C. bursa-pastoris fruit shape and investigated the predictive relationship between fruit shape and seed production. C_LIO_LIKey results: We found that temperatures above 30C act as an environmental constraint on both C. bursa-pastoris fruit shape and reproduction, resulting in malformed fruits and no seed production. However, leaf number and plant survival were unaffected by high urban heat. C_LIO_LIMain conclusions: While plants may grow and survive in the high urban heat, heat could still limit population persistence. C_LI

plant biology↗

Procrustean pseudo-landmark methods in Python to measure massive quantities of leaf shape data

PremiseWhen examining leaf shapes that are different from one another, it can be difficult to compare both the overall leaf shape and points along the leaf margin in biologically and statistically meaningful ways. MethodTo address this problem, we present a simple and user-friendly leaf shape analysis in Jupyter Notebook and Python that uses pseudo-landmarks and Generalized Procrustes Analysis to measure and compare the shape of any leaf. To demonstrate our analysis, we created a repository of real leaves gathered from eight experimental datasets. ResultsUsing our leaf repository, we explain how we can use pseudo-landmarks to compare all leaf shapes both within and between species using dimension reduction techniques like Principal Component Analysis and can predict leaf shapes using pseudo-landmarks through Linear Discriminant Analysis. Our leaf shape analysis also maps differences in shape as leaves grew around a rosette, showing the transition of shape across development (phyllotaxy). Finally, we showed how we can investigate the relationship between leaf shape variation and genetic diversity by combining shape with genetic data. DiscussionThrough the use of Generalized Procrustes Analysis and pseudo-landmarks, our leaf shape analysis presents a powerful tool for examining the shape of any leaf across multiple biological, ecological, evolutionary, and developmental scales.

plant biology↗