Brassica nigra – Black Mustard

Black mustard is cultivated for its seeds, the source of commercial table-mustard, used as a condiment and medicine.

Seeds contain both a fixed and an essential oil, used as a condiment, illuminant, lubricant, and soap constituent.

Black mustard is mixed with white mustard (Sinapis alba) to make mustard flour, used in various condiments as "English Mustard" when mixed with water and "Continental Mustard" with vinegar. Mustard flowers are good honey producers.

Mustard is agriculturally used as a cover crop.

Mustard oil (allyl isothiocyanate) is used in cat and dog repellents.

Source: James A. Duke. 1983. Handbook of Energy Crops. unpublished. Center for New Crops & Plant Products, at Purdue University

“Toxic to many herbivores, bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi.” Direct impact on other plants?

http://www.pharm.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/flower/H1904.html

http://www.giftpflanzen.com/armoracia_rusticana.html

90-95% of the glucosinolates in B. nigra are in the form of sinigrin, hence selection for glucosinolate conc. is really selection for sinigrin. Because sinigrin is a heritable trait, it is easier to track the selective advantage of glucosinolates.

First Hypothesis

• “Because of sinigrin’s effects on heterospecific plants and mycorrhizal fungi (mutualists that benefit most plant species but not members of the Brassicaceae), we hypothesize that investment to sinigrin should benefit B. nigra genotypes competing with heterospecifics but not conspecifics.”

• To look for possible feedback effects due to sinigrin concentrations, the authors sampled naturally occurring populations along a gradient of monocultures to mixes with heterospecific species.

1 meter diameter quadrat

Estimated the % ground cover of four functional groups:

B. nigra

heterospecific forbs

grasses

bare ground

Measured sinigrin concentration of target B. nigra species.

Final fitness for each individualTarget B. nigra

“We found that the selective value of sinigrin increased as the

community became dominated by heterospecfics.”

Abundance of heterospecific species correlated with the sinigrin concentration of the

target species.

“Our observations suggest that cyclic dynamics between selection pressures and community composition could lead to the simultaneous maintenance of both genetic diversity

in sinigrin genes and species diversity in the plant community.”

• “To test this hypothesis rigorously, we performed a community invasibility experiment.”

“Thus, not only does the selective value of sinigrin concentration seem to depend on community composition, but the community composition may also depend on the sinigrin concentration of individual plants.”

• Created genetic lines of high- and low sinigrin B. nigra.

• Selected 3 abundant, co-occuring, phylogenetically diverse competitor species. (Which presumable have mychorrizal associations.)

• Amsinckia menziesii (Boraginaceae) –Common fiddleneck

• Sonchus oleraceus (Asteraceae) – Common sowthistle

• Malva parviflora (Malvaceae) – Cheeseweed mallow

3 community types

1) High-sinigrin B. nigra monocultures

2) Low – sinigrin B. nigra monocultures

3) A 3-species mixed heterospecific community

Each community consisted of 24 neighbor plants, surrounding a target invader.

Target Invader-High sinigrin B. nigra-Low sinigrin B. nigraOr 1 of the heterospecifics:

Amsinckia menziesii Sonchus oleraceusMalva parviflora

“Thus the fitness of a B. nigra genotype depends on the community composition (diverse vs. monculture) that it invades.”

“The observed differences in heterospecific invader fitness in seed production persisted into the next generation in the field, resulting in

higher seedling densities in low-sinigrin communities.”

Caveats to this experiment.

The effects seen in this experiment could be pleiotropic effects or genes closely linked to sinigrin concentrations.

Caveats to this experiment.

The effects seen in this experiment could be pleiotropic effects or genes closely linked to sinigrin concentrations.

Pleiotropy – when many effects are produced from a single gene.

Another caveat

• Mycorrhizal fungal communities may be playing a role.

• Mycorrhizal fungal communities may be altered by sinigrin, a known antifungal substance, or it’s metabolic breakdown products.

• “To explore this possibility, we estimated the mycorrhizal infection potential (MIP) of soils taken from 10 plots of each community type (high- & low-sinigrin B. nigra and a mix of the 3 heterospecfics), using Sorghum bicolor as an indicator species.”

Brassicaceae are nonmycorrhizal. The heterospecific species are mycorrhizal.

Heterospecific communities

Invaded by High-sinigrin B. nigra

High-sinigrin B. nigra communityLow-sinigrin B. nigra community

Invaded by

heterospecific species.

Invaded by low-singrin B. nigra