How important are functional and developmental constraints on phenotypic evolution? An empirical test with the stomatal anatomy of flowering plants

Quantifying the relative contribution of functional and developmental constraints on phenotypic variation is a longstanding goal of macroevolution, but it is often difficult to distinguish different types of constraints. Alternatively, selection can limit phenotypic (co)variation if some trait combinations are generally maladaptive. The anatomy of leaves with stomata on both surfaces (amphistomatous) presents a unique opportunity to test the importance of functional and developmental constraints on phenotypyic evolution. The key insight is that stomata on each leaf surface encounter the same functional and developmental constraints, but potentially different selective pressures because of leaf asymmetry in light capture, gas exchange, and other features. Independent evolution of stomatal traits on each surface implies that functional and developmental constraints alone likely do not explain trait covariance. Packing limits on how many stomata can fit into a finite epidermis and cell-siz..., , , This readme file was generated on 2022-09-10 by Chris Muir

GENERAL INFORMATION

Title of Dataset: How important are functional and developmental constraints on phenotypic evolution? An empirical test with the stomatal anatomy of flowering plants

Author/Principal Investigator Information
Name: Christopher D. Muir
ORCID: 0000-0003-2555-3878
Institution: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Address:
2538 McCarthy Mall
EDM 216
Honolulu, HI 96822
Email: [e-mail]

SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION

Licenses/restrictions placed on the data:
No licenses/restrictions on processed data
The ropenstomata R package contains raw data distributed under an MIT license

Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data:
Raw stomatal anatomical data: https://github.com/cdmuir/ropenstomata
Processed data: https://github.com/cdmuir/stomata-independence

Links/relationships to ancillary data sets:

References to original stomatal anatomical data sets are provided in Table A5 of the Muir et al. (2022) a...