Floral ultraviolet absorbance area responds plastically to ultraviolet irradiance in Brassica rapa

Gray, Liberty A., Varga, Sandra and Soulsbury, Carl (2022) Floral ultraviolet absorbance area responds plastically to ultraviolet irradiance in Brassica rapa. Plant-Environment Interactions, 3 (5). pp. 203-211. ISSN 2575-6265

Full content URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/pei3.10091

Documents
Floral ultraviolet absorbance area responds plastically to ultraviolet irradiance in Brassica rapa
Published manuscript
[img]
[Download]
[img]
Preview
PDF
2022 Gray et al PEI.pdf - Whole Document
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.

1MB
Item Type:Article
Item Status:Live Archive

Abstract

Solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation is known to have significant effects on the development and performance of plants, including flowers. In multiple species, UV-absorbing floral patterns are associated with environmental conditions such as the solar UV exposure they typically receive. However, it is not known whether plants can increase the UV-absorbing areas found on petals plastically when in a high-UV environment. We grew Brassica rapa at three different UV radiation intensities (control, low, and high) and under two exposure duration regimes. We removed petals from flowers periodically during the flowering period and measured the proportion of the petal that absorbed UV. UV-absorbing areas increased when plants were exposed to longer periods of UV radiation, and at high UV radiation intensities. UV-absorbing area of petals of the UV intensity treatments decreased over time in long exposure plants. This study demonstrates that flowers can potentially acclimate to different UV radiation intensities and duration of exposure through an increase in UV-absorbing areas even after a relatively short exposure time to UV. Such a rapid plastic response may be especially beneficial for dynamically changing UV conditions and in response to climate change.

Keywords:Brassica rapa, Plasticity, ultraviolet radiation, UV Bullseye, UV exposure, UV-B
Subjects:C Biological Sciences > C182 Evolution
C Biological Sciences > C200 Botany
C Biological Sciences > C100 Biology
C Biological Sciences > C150 Environmental Biology
Divisions:College of Science > School of Life and Environmental Sciences > Department of Life Sciences
Related URLs:
ID Code:51971
Deposited On:11 Oct 2022 10:50

Repository Staff Only: item control page