Eduardo Narbona

Pablo de Olavide University | UPO · Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Engineering

The presence of anthocyanins in flowers and fruits is frequently attributed to attracting pollinators and dispersers. In vegetative organs, anthocyanins and other non-pigmented flavonoids such as flavones and flavonols may serve protective functions against UV radiation, cold, heat, drought, salinity, pathogens, and herbivores; thus, these compound...

Phenotypic plasticity, the ability of a genotype of producing different phenotypes when exposed to different environments, may impact ecological interactions. We study here how within-individual plasticity in Moricandia arvensis flowers modifies its pollination niche. During spring, this plant produces large, cross-shaped, UV-reflecting lilac flowe...

Anthocyanins are the primary pigments contributing to the variety of flower colors among angiosperms and are considered essential for survival and reproduction. Anthocyanins are members of the flavonoids, a broader class of secondary metabolites, of which there are numerous structural genes and regulators thereof. In western European populations of...

Although angiosperms exhibit a wide range of variability in floral traits such as shape and size, flower color is a hallmark of angiosperm diversity. Since before Darwin's time, flower color has long been appreciated for its role in pollinator attraction (Sprengel, 1793; Mendel, 1866; Darwin, 1895; Faegri and van der Pijl, 1966; Proctor and Yeo, 19...

Flower colour is mainly due to the presence and type of pigments. Pollinator preferences impose selection on flower colour that ultimately acts on flower pigments. Knowing how pollinators perceive flowers with different pigments becomes crucial for a comprehensive understanding of plant-pollinator communication and flower colour evolution. Based on...

Background and Aims Flower colour is a key feature in plant-pollinator interactions that make the flowers visible amid the surrounding green vegetation. Green flowers are expected to be scarcely conspicuous to pollinators; however, many of them are visited by pollinators even in the absence of other traits that might attract pollinators (e.g., flor...

Background Polymorphisms are common in nature, but they are rarely shared among closely related species. Polymorphisms could originate through convergence, ancestral polymorphism, or introgression. Although shared neutral genomic variation across species is commonplace, few examples of shared functional traits exist. The blue-orange petal color pol...

Flower colour polymorphisms are uncommon but widespread among angiosperms and can be maintained by a variety of balancing selection mechanisms. Anemone palmata is mostly yellow‐flowered, but white‐flowered plants coexist in some populations. We analysed the distribution of colour morphs of A. palmata across its range. We also characterised their co...

In this poster we explore the different anthocyanin (pelargonidin, cyanidin and delphinidin) composition on red-flowered species pollinated by bees and birds. Red-flowered species pollinated by bees ussually show cyanidin or delphinid -the latter is restricted to these pollinators- while those pollinated by birds produce mainly pelargonidin. We...

Adaptive phenotypic plasticity evolves in response to the contrasting selection pressures that arise when organisms face environmental heterogeneity. Despite its importance for understanding how organisms successfully cope with environmental change, adaptive plasticity is often assumed but rarely demonstrated. We study here the adaptive nature of t...

In this poster we explore the pigment composition of hummingbird-pollinated, red-flowered from California.

Many insular plant species inhabiting different archipelagos worldwide present typical ornithophilous floral traits (e.g. copious nectar, red‐orange colours), but most of them are visited by insectivorous/granivorous birds and lizards, which act as generalist pollinators. Oceanic islands promote these ecological interactions mainly due to the scarc...

Polymorphisms are common in nature, but they are rarely shared among related species. They could originate through convergence, ancestral polymorphism, or introgression. Although shared neutral genomic variation is commonplace, very few examples of shared functional traits exist. The blue-orange petal colors polymorphisms in two closely related spe...

Plasticity‐mediated changes in interaction dynamics and structure may scale up and affect the ecological network in which the plastic species are embedded. Despite their potential relevance for understanding the effects of plasticity on ecological communities, these effects have seldom been analysed. We argue here that, by boosting the magnitude of...

Red‐flowered species have traditionally been related to ornithophily, and the ‘bee avoidance’ hypothesis, that is, red flower colouration is a way to reduce visits from hymenopterans, has been proposed to explain this association. In the Mediterranean Basin, ornithophily is almost absent, and hymenopterans are the most common group of pollinators....

Many flowers exhibit phenotypic plasticity. By inducing the production of several phenotypes, plasticity may favour the rapid exploration of different regions of the floral morphospace. We investigated how plasticity drives Moricandia arvensis, a species displaying within‐individual floral polyphenism, across the floral morphospace of the entire Br...

Flowering plants are characterized by the production of striking flower colours and these colours are primarily caused by the accumulation of pigments in cells of the floral organs. The extraordinary array of colours displayed in flowers relies on four main pigment groups: chlorophylls, carotenoids, flavonoids and betalains. With thousands of diffe...

Phenotypic convergence, the independent evolution of similar traits, is ubiquitous in nature, happening at all levels of biological organizations and in most kinds of living beings. Uncovering its mechanisms remains a fundamental goal in biology. Evolutionary theory considers that convergence emerges through independent genetic changes selected ove...

The reproductive success of plants depends both on their phenotype and the local neighbourhood in which they grow. Animal-pollinated plants may benefit from increased visitation when surrounded by attractive conspecific individuals, via a “magnet effect.” Group attractiveness is thus potentially a public good that can be exploited by individuals, w...

Variation in flower color due to transgenerational plasticity could stem directly from abiotic or biotic environmental conditions. Finding a link between biotic ecological interactions across generations and plasticity in flower color would indicate that transgenerational effects of ecological interactions, such as herbivory, might be involved in f...

Flower color, as other floral traits, may suffer conflicting selective pressures mediated by both mutualists and antagonists. The maintenance of intraspecific flower color variability has been usually explained as a result of direct selection by biotic agents. However, flower color might also be under indirect selection through correlated traits, s...

• Intraspecific flower colour‐variation has been generally proposed to evolve as a result of selection driven by biotic or abiotic agents. • In a polymorphic population of Silene littorea with pink and white‐flowered plants, we studied the diurnal and nocturnal pollinators, analysed flower colour perception and tested for differences in pollinator...

Plants respond to changes in ultraviolet (UV) radiation both morphologically and physiologically. Among the variety of plant UV-responses, the synthesis of UV-absorbing flavonoids constitutes an effective non-enzymatic mechanism to mitigate photoinhibitory and photooxidative damage caused by UV stress, either reducing the penetration of incident UV...

Plants respond to changes in ultraviolet (UV) radiation via morphological and physiological changes. Among the variety of plant UV-responses, the synthesis of UV-absorbing flavonoids constitutes an effective non-enzymatic mechanism to mitigate photoinhibitory and photooxidative damage caused by UV stress, either reducing the penetration of incident...

Reconstructing the phylogenetic relationships within Caryophyllaceae tribe Sileneae has been obscured by hybridization and incomplete lineage sorting. Silene is the largest genus in the Caryophyllaceae, and unraveling its evolutionary history has been particularly challenging. In order to infer the phylogenetic relationships among the five species...

Background Anthocyanins are the primary source of colour in flowers and also accumulate in vegetative tissues, where they have multiple protective roles traditionally attributed to early compounds of the metabolic pathway (flavonols, flavones, etc.). Petal-specific loss of anthocyanins in petals allows plants to escape from the negative pleiotropic...

The phenology of anthocyanin accumulation in leaves has been widely studied in perennial plants; several hypotheses have been proposed to explain their adaptive significance. Here, we explored the photoprotection hypothesis in Silene germana, a Mediterranean annual plant with late‐spring/summer flowering. We analyzed the temporal patterns of anthoc...

Plants respond to environmental stimuli in a diversity of ways including the production of secondary metabolites. Biosynthesis of plant phenolics, including flavonoids, is frequently activated in response to a variety of abiotic and biotic stressors (e.g. extreme temperatures, high radiation, pathogens, etc.). This induced reaction is typically ass...

Anthocyanin pigments have become a model trait for evolutionary ecology as they often provide adaptive benefits for plants. Anthocyanins have been traditionally quantified biochemically or more recently using spectral reflectance. However, both methods require destructive sampling and can be labor intensive and challenging with small samples. Recen...

Sexual expression can vary at different levels in diclinous sexual systems. To measure total phenotypic variation, it is necessary to consider the genetic component, the effect of environment, and interaction (i.e. the heritable component of plasticity). Silene littorea has a gynodioecious-gynomonoecious sexual system, with a high proportion of gyn...

Flower colour polymorphism (FCP) is the occurrence of at least two discrete flower colour variants in the same population. Despite a vast body of research concerning the maintenance and evolutionary consequences of FCP, only recently has the spatial variation in morph frequencies among populations been explored. Here we have summarized the biochemi...

In flowering plants, anthocyanins may be produced in all organs, from roots to flowers; their accumulation in vegetative organs produce mostly red or purple colourations. Functions ascribed to anthocyanins in those organs include protection to environmental stressors such as UV-B radiation, cold temperature, drought, or herbivores. Time and space p...

The variety and evolution of reproductive strategies in plants have attracted the attention of scientists for a long time. The genus Silene has been the focus of several studies related to the diversity and evolution of sexual systems. This review will summarize the huge amount of knowledge on sexual strategies in Silene species. Hermaphroditism is...

Flower color polymorphisms are widely used as model traits from genetics to ecology, yet determining the biochemical and molecular basis can be challenging. Anthocyanin-based flower color variations can be caused by at least 12 structural and three regulatory genes in the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway (ABP). We use mRNA-Seq to simultaneously seq...

Anthocyanins in reproductive organs are commonly associated with pollinator attraction, whereas in vegetative organs, anthocyanins and other flavonoids may exert protective functions. Silene littorea grows in the coastal dunes of western Mediterranean with a variable pigmentation in the whole plant. We exanimated the accumulation of anthocyanins an...

Species of Silene show a high diversity of sexual systems as hermaphroditism, dioecy, gynodioecy, gynomonoecy or andromonoecy. Some gynodioecious species have hermaphroditic, female and gynomonoecious plants coexisting in the same population, and should be considered as gynodioecious-gynomonoecious species. Here, we first estimate the frequency of...

Silene niceensis and S. ramosissima are taxonomically related species sharing habitat, with the same a priori nocturnal pollinator syndrome and overlapping flowering phenology. Our aim is to demonstrate that a prior selfing strategy in S. ramosissima allows it to avoid pollinator competition with S. niceensis. The breeding system, petal colour, flo...

Flower colour is one of the main floral traits for pollinator’s attraction, and is caused by accumulation of anthocyanins in most angiosperms. In the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway, other flavonoids that protect against different biotic and abiotic stresses are synthesized. Silene littorea is an entomophilous annual plant with pink flowers, howev...

The genus Silene Section Psammophilae includes S. littorea, S. adscendens, S. cambessedessi, S. stockenii, and S. psammitis - all cross compatible endemic species restricted to the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands. We investigated the phylogeographic relationships of these species using a genome skimming approach from genomic DNA sequences of...

Evolution of autonomous selfing may be advantageous because it allows for reproductive assurance. In co-flowering plants competing for pollinators, the least common and/or attractive could suffer pollen limitations. Silene niceensis and S. ramosissima are taxonomically related species sharing the same habitat, although S. ramosissima is less abunda...

Species and populations can be categorized by their sexual systems, depending on the spatial distribution of female and male reproductive structures within and among plants. Although a high diversity of sexual systems exists in Silene, their relative frequency at the genus and infrageneric level is unknown. Here, we carried out an extensive literat...

En este artículo se revisa el estado actual de conocimiento sobre la capacidad de algunas especies de presentar individuos con diferente coloración de los pétalos, tanto dentro como entre poblaciones. Tras un repaso histórico de los estudios más influyentes sobre polimorfismo en el color floral, se analizan los diferentes tipos de pigmentos involuc...

Myrmecochory commonly complements the advantages of ballistic dispersal in diplochorous species. We studied the role of the elaiosome in two populations of the two diplochorous Mediterranean spurges Euphorbia boetica and E. nicaeensis, which share an efficient ballistic dispersal mechanism followed by secondary removal by ants. They differ in elaio...

Cistus ladanifer L. (Cistaceae) is a shrubby species, primarily found as a dominant species of the Mediterranean evergreen scrub. Intervarietal (var. ladanifer and var. maculatus) cross compatibility and self-incompatibility (SI) were studied in six Iberian populations of C. ladanifer. In addition, temporal variation in SI across 2 years and variab...

Ecosistemas 22(2):125 [Mayo-Agosto 2013] Doi.: 10.7818/ECOS.2013.22-2.20 Artículo publicado en Open Access bajo los términos de Creative Commons attribution Non Comercial License. NOTAS ecosistemas REVISTA CIENTÍFICA DE ECOLOGÍA Y MEDIO AMBIENTE ISSN 1697-2473 / Open access disponible en www.revistaecosistemas.net © 2012 Los Autores. Editado por la...

Some gynodioecious species have intermediate individuals that bear both female and hermaphroditic flowers. This phenomenon is known as a gynodioecious-gynomonoecious sexual system. Gender expression in such species has received little attention in the past, and the phenologies of male and female functions have also yet to be explored. In this study...

Background/Question/Methods Flower color has fascinated biologists for centuries, yet most studies have focused on polymorphisms with discrete color variants. Most species in nature with flower color polymorphisms exhibit a continuous distribution of pigmentation. In such cases, accurate quantification of flower color is essential to understandin...

Scorzoneroides palisiae, S. salzmannii, and S. muelleri (Asteraceae) are phylogenetically close annuals with dimorphic achenes. Although these three species are characteristic to areas with some degree of disturbance, S. palisiae and S. salzmannii grow in Mediterranean environments, whereas S. muelleri preferentially grows in semi-arid environments...

Variation in flower colour can reflect adaptive responses to selective pressures generated by pollinators. Cistus ladanifer is a Mediterranean shrub that displays self-incompatibility, entomophyly and polymorphism for the presence of a dark coloured blotch in the base of their petals (var. maculatus with blotched petals and var. ladanifer with unbl...

Frequency histograms showing the number of times that two inflorescence levels in anthesis of the same inflorescence overlapped in two populations over two years in E. boetica. Total number of censuses is shown in Table 2. (TIF)

Frequency histograms showing in which inflorescence levels the overlapping between two inflorescence levels occurs in two populations over two years in E. boetica. Total number of censuses is shown in Table 2. (TIF)

Pollen germination in stigmas of E. boetica and E. nicaeensis. Styles were fixed 24 h after pollination and stained with aniline blue. A, pollen germination after geitonogamous crosses in E. boetica (×2500). B, pollen germination after xenogamous crosses in E. boetica (×2500). C, pollen germination after geitonogamous crosses in E. nicaeensis (×160...

Plant species have several mechanisms to avoid selfing such as dichogamy or a self-incompatibility response. Dichogamy in a single flower may reduce autogamy but, to avoid geitonogamy, plants must show flowering synchronization among all their flowers (i.e. synchronous dichogamy). It is hypothesized that one species would not simultaneously show sy...

Variation is the raw material for evolution. Differences among populations in the expression of traits related to plant fitness may result from natural selection, phenotypic plasticity (in response to local conditions), and developmental instability (manifested as high intra-individual variation in repeated patterns or characters). Cistus ladanifer...

Monoecious plants have the capacity to allocate resources separately to male and female functions more easily than hermaphrodites. This can be advantageous against environmental stresses such as leaf herbivory. However, studies showing effects of herbivory on male and female functions and on the interaction with the plant's pollinators are limited,...

Typically, plant-pollinator interactions are recognized as mutualistic relationships. Flower visitors, however, can potentially play multiple roles. The floral nectar in Croton suberosus has been proposed to operate as a reward for predators, especially the wasp Polistes instabilis (Vespidae), which kills herbivorous insects, while the plant has be...

It has been hypothesized that annual life history and heterocarpy are an adaptation to unpredictable habitats. In this paper, we infer a phylogenetic history for Scorzoneroides from the analysis of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and plastid ndhF-rpl32 and rpl32-trnL sequences, on which we trace the evolution of one ecological (predictable vs unp...

In andromonoecious taxa with separate floral types along the inflorescence, architectural or plastic effects can simulate floral sexual dimorphism. Both the primary and secondary sexual characteristics of the cyathia of the protogynous andromonoecious species Euphorbia nicaeensis were analysed according to their sex and arrangement on the infloresc...