TY - JOUR T1 - Community specificity: life and afterlife effects of genes. JF - Trends in plant science Y1 - 2012 A1 - Whitham,Thomas G A1 - Gehring,Catherine A A1 - Lamit,Louis J A1 - Wojtowicz,Todd A1 - Evans,Luke M A1 - Keith,Arthur R A1 - Smith,David Solance KW - Animals KW - Arthropods KW - Biological Evolution KW - Ecosystem KW - Genotype KW - Herbivory KW - Host-Parasite Interactions KW - Models, Biological KW - Plants KW - Species Specificity AB -

Community-level genetic specificity results when individual genotypes or populations of the same species support different communities. Our review of the literature shows that genetic specificity exhibits both life and afterlife effects; it is a widespread phenomenon occurring in diverse taxonomic groups, aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems, and species-poor to species-rich systems. Such specificity affects species interactions, evolution, ecosystem processes and leads to community feedbacks on the performance of the individuals expressing the traits. Thus, genetic specificity by communities appears to be fundamentally important, suggesting that specificity is a major driver of the biodiversity and stability of the world's ecosystems.

VL - 17 SN - 1360-1385 UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&DbFrom=pubmed&Cmd=Link&LinkName=pubmed_pubmed&LinkReadableName=Related%20Articles&IdsFromResult=22322002&ordinalpos=3&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSumhttp://www.ncbi. IS - 5 ER -