在这里，研究人员通过实验测试了三种植物防御基因对昆虫食物网持久性的影响，发现单个基因上的单个等位基因通过提高植物生长速率来促进共存，这反过来又提高了多个营养级的物种的内在生长速率。 他们对“基石基因”的发现表明，需要在从基因到生态系统的生物尺度之间架起桥梁，以了解群落的持久性。
据介绍，基因编码决定有机体适应性的信息。然而，我们对一个物种的基因是否会影响生态群落中相互作用物种的持久性知之甚少。
附：英文原文
Title: A keystone gene underlies the persistence of an experimental food web
Author: Matthew A. Barbour, Daniel J. Kliebenstein, Jordi Bascompte
Issue&Volume: 2022-04-01
Abstract: Genes encode information that determines an organism’s fitness. Yet we know little about whether genes of one species influence the persistence of interacting species in an ecological community. Here, we experimentally tested the effect of three plant defense genes on the persistence of an insect food web and found that a single allele at a single gene promoted coexistence by increasing plant growth rate, which in turn increased the intrinsic growth rates of species across multiple trophic levels. Our discovery of a “keystone gene” illustrates the need to bridge between biological scales, from genes to ecosystems, to understand community persistence.
DOI: abf2232
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abf2232