DOI: 10.5061/dryad.msbcc2g36
title: Data from: Phenotypic plasticity and genetic diversity shed light on endemism of rare Boechera perstellata and its potential vulnerability to climate warming

description: Premise of the study: The rapid pace of contemporary environmental change
 puts many species at risk, especially rare species constrained by limited
 capacity to adapt or migrate due to low genetic diversity and/or fitness.
 But the ability to acclimate can provide another way to persist through
 change. We compared the capacity of rare Boechera perstellata
 (Braun’s rockcress) and widespread B. laevigata to acclimate to change.
 Methods: We investigated the phenotypic plasticity of growth, biomass
 allocation, and leaf morphology of individuals of B. perstellata and B.
 laevigata propagated from seed collected from several populations
 throughout their ranges in a growth chamber experiment to assess their
 capacity to acclimate. Concurrently, we assessed the genetic diversity of
 sampled populations using 17 microsatellite loci to assess evolutionary
 potential. Key results: Plasticity was limited in both rare B. perstellata
 and widespread B. laevigata, but differences in the plasticity of root
 traits between species suggest that B. perstellata may have less capacity
 to acclimate to change. In contrast to its widespread congener, B.
 perstellata exhibited no plasticity in response to temperature and weaker
 plastic responses to water availability. As expected, B. perstellata also
 had lower levels of observed heterozygosity than B. laevigata at the
 species level, but population-level trends in diversity measures were
 inconsistent due to high heterogeneity among B. laevigata populations.
 Conclusions: Overall, the ability of phenotypic plasticity to broadly
 explain the rarity of B. perstellata vs. commonness of B. laevigata is
 limited. However, some contextual aspects of our plasticity findings
 compared with its relatively low genetic variability may shed light on the
 narrow range and habitat associations of B. perstellata and suggest its
 vulnerability to climate warming due to acclimatory and evolutionary
 constraints.
description: Phenotypic plasticity and genetic diversity shed light on endemism and
 vulnerability of rare Boechera perstellata relative to a widespread
 congener--- The following data files are available for download: 1.
 Boechera\_Traits\_Data.xlsx 2.
 Boechera\_Genetic\_Data\_GenAlEx\_format.xlsx 3.
 Boechera\_FSTAT\_MLGs\_for\_Illinois.dat Description of the data and file
 structure: 1. Boechera\_Traits\_Data\_Set.xlsx includes all data from the
 growth chamber experiments. The first sheet provides a description of the
 data in the other sheets of the spreadsheet. The second sheet includes
 survival and trait values data. The third sheet contains trait plasticity
 data. Variables include: TREATMENT: Environmental condition (ambient,
 light = double ambient = 500 mmol photons m-2 s-1, temperature = 2 degrees
 C warmer than ambient = 22/32 degrees C day/night, water = double ambient
 = 100% field capacity) SPECIES: Plant species (rare Boechera perstellata,
 common Boechera laevigata) POPULATION: Location of population (B.
 perstellata: TN1 = Rutherford County, TN; TN 2 = Smith County, TN; KY1 =
 Franklin County, KY; KY2 = Franklin County KY; B. laevigata: TN = Cheatham
 County, TN; IL = Bunker Hill, Cook County, IL; PA = Clarion County, PA)
 INDIVIDUAL: Individual ID (represents half-siblings to siblings across
 chambers) SURVIVED: 1 = survived, 0 = did not survive HEIGHT: Shoot height
 (cm) LEAVES: Number of leaves ROOTLENGTH: Root length (cm) SHOOTMASS: Dry
 shoot mass (g) ROOTMASS: Dry root mass (g) BIOMASS: Total dry biomass (g)
 RSR\_LENGTH: Root-to-shoot length ratio (ROOT\_L cm HEIGHT cm-1)
 RSR\_MASS: Root-to-shoot mass ratio (ROOTMASS g SHOOTMASS g-1) SRL:
 Specific root length (ROOT\_L cm ROOTMASS g-1) SLA: Specific leaf area
 (cm2 g-1) RDPI\_HEIGHT: Relative Distances Plasticity Index of shoot
 height in response to treatment (described in column A) RDPI\_LEAVES:
 Relative Distances Plasticity Index of number of leaves in response to
 treatment (described in column A) RDPI\_ROOTLENGTH: Relative Distances
 Plasticity Indexof root length in response to treatment (described in
 column A) RDPI\_ROOTMASS: Relative Distances Plasticity Index of dry root
 mass in response to treatment (described in column A) RDPI\_RSR\_LENGTH:
 Relative Distances Plasticity Index of root-to-shoot length ratio in
 response to treatment (described in column A) RDPI\_RSR\_MASS: Relative
 Distances Plasticity Index of root-to-shoot mass ratio in response to
 treatment (described in column A) RDPI\_SRL: Relative Distances Plasticity
 Index of specific root length in response to treatment (described in
 column A) RDPI\_SLA: Relative Distances Plasticity Index of specific leaf
 area in response to treatment (described in column A) n/a: data not
 available (due to missing sample, individual death prior to measurement,
 inabiity to effectively separate roots from soil to yield accurate root
 measurements, inability to measure leaf-level photosynthesis due to plant
 size, and/or missing values required to  calculate a variable) 2.
 Boechera\_Genetic\_Data\_GenAlEx\_format.xlsx includes all genetic
 (microsatellite) data relevant to the plants from the growth chamber
 experiments. The first sheet provides a description of the contents of the
 other sheets in the spreadsheet. All data sheets are formatted as
 specified in the GenAlEx users manual. Link for GenAlEx users manual:
 https://biology-assets.anu.edu.au/GenAlEx/Download\_files/GenAlEx%206.5%20Guide.pdfCitations for GenAlEx: Peakall, R.; Smouse, P. E. GENALEX 6: genetic analysis in Excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research. Molecular Ecology Notes 2006, 6, 288?295.Peakall, R.; Smouse, P. E. GenAlEx 6.5: genetic analysis in Excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research- an update. Bioinformatics 2012, 28, 25372539. 3. Boechera\_FSTAT\_MLGs\_for\_Illinois.dat is an FSTAT data file, formatted as detailed in the FSTAT users manual. All rows of data are in the same order as in the GenAlEx spreadsheet. However, unlike for the GenAlEx spreadsheet, only unique multi-locus genotypes were included for the presumed apomictic Illinois population of B. laevigata (i.e.the population labeled 6 in the FSTAT file), resulting in a sample size of 9 individuals (MLGs) for that population. Citation for FSTAT (including the link for access to the users manual):Goudet J. FSTAT (version 1.2): a computer program to calculate F-statistics.J. Hered.1995, 86,485486.Goudet J. Fstat (ver. 2.9.4), a program to estimate and test population genetics parameters, 2003. Available at http://www.t-de-meeus.fr/Programs/Fstat294.zipAvailable at. (Updated from Goudet 1995)