Nonsymbiotic legumes are more invasive, but only if polyploid

What is it about?

Leguminous plants, those that form associations with rhizobia for access to nitrogen, are found worldwide. Legumes also vary considerably in ploidy level – the number of copies of each chromosome in a cell. We show that interactions with rhizobia restrict range expansion in legumes but only when plants are also polyploid, indicating that plant associated microbes and ploidy level are both important determinants of global plant distributions.

Featured Image