Format: ORAL

Guillaume Chomicki

Durham University, department of Biosciences, South Road, DH1 3LE Durham, UK.

Complex, composite traits involve multiple components that, only when combined, gain a new synergistic function. Thus, how they evolve remains a puzzle -- what Darwin referred to as a special diffulty in the Origin of Species. I will present the results of multi-disciplinary study [1] that combined field experiments in the field and in the lab, microscopy, chemical analyses and laser Doppler vibrometry with comparative phylogenetic analyses to show that two carnivorous Nepenthes pitcher plant species independently evolved similar adaptations in three distinct traits to acquire a new, composite trapping mechanism. Phylogenetic comparative analyses suggest that this new trait arose convergently via spontaneous coincidence of the required trait combination, rather than directional selection in the component traits. Our results indicate a new mechanism for composite trait evolution and highlight the importance of stochastic phenotypic variation as a facilitator of evolutionary novelty. Reference: 1. G Chomicki, G Burin, L Busta, J Gozdzik, R Jetter, B Mortimer, U Bauer (2024) Convergence in carnivorous pitcher plants reveals a mechanism for composite trait evolution. Science(In press)