A remarkable example of mimicry in plants is found in Australian mistletoes, whose leaves mimic those of their specific host trees 4, 5, 6, but see 7. Mimicry phenomena, whereby one species imitates another and, in so doing, gains fitness benefits, have long attracted ecological and evolutionary research, but cases in plants are not numerous 1, 2, 3. The role of bacteria in this unique case of leaf mimicry should be studied further.
Whereas non-mimetic Boquila leaves and tree leaves (BT–RS) showed clearly different bacterial communities, mimetic Boquila leaves and tree leaves (BR–RS) showed an overlap concerning their bacterial communities. We found significant differences in the endophytic bacterial communities among the three groups, verifying the hypothesis. We hypothesized that bacterial communities would be more similar in the BR–RS comparison than in the BT–RS comparison. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we compared the endophytic bacterial communities in three groups of leaves collected in a temperate rainforest: (1) leaves from the model tree Rhaphithamnus spinosus (RS), (2) Boquila leaves mimicking the tree leaves (BR), and (3) Boquila leaves from the same individual vine but not mimicking the tree leaves (BT). Here we evaluated whether leaf endophytic bacterial communities are associated with the mimicry pattern. A hypothesis in the original leaf mimicry report considered that microbial vectors from trees could carry genes or epigenetic factors that would alter the expression of leaf traits in Boquila. The mechanisms behind the unique capacity of the vine Boquila trifoliolata to mimic the leaves of several tree species remain unknown.
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