When to be a male? Role of resource-limitation and pollinators in determining floral sex in an andromonoecious spiderwort

Author:

Albal Asawari,Azad G,Shrotri Saket,Gowda Vinita

Abstract

AbstractThe evolution and maintenance of sexual systems in plants is often driven by resource allocation and pollinator preferences, and very little is known about their role in determining floral sex expression in plants. In annual, entomophilous plants three major constraints can be identified towards optimal reproduction: 1) nutrient resources available from the environment, 2) nutrient resources allocated towards reproduction, i.e., fruits vs. flowers, and 3) pollinator visitations.Andromonoecy is a sexual system where plants bear both staminate and hermaphrodite flowers on the same inflorescence. The optimal resource allocation hypothesis suggests that under nutrient constraints, plants will produce more male flowers since they are energetically cheaper to produce over the more expensive hermaphrodite flowers. We test this hypothesis in the andromonoeciousMurdannia simplex(Commelinaceae) by quantifying male and hermaphrodite flowers in a natural population and contrasting the distribution of the two sexes in plants from two resource conditions (stream population vs. plateau population). We next carried out choice experiments to test pollinator preference towards a specific sex.We found that inM. simplex, production of hermaphrodite flowers is resource-dependent and under resource constraints fewer numbers of flowers were produced and most of them were males. We failed to observe pollinator preference towards either sex butAmegilla spp. andApis ceranashowed higher visitation towards the most abundant sex within a trial, suggesting frequency-dependent visitation. Thus, we conclude that environmentally driven resource constraints play a bigger role in driving floral sex expression inMurdanniaover direct pollinator-driven constraints.

Publisher

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Reference67 articles.

1. When does a flower become male? Exploring role of ecological factors and energy resources in defining gender expression in sympatric plants;Master’s thesis, IISER Bhopal, India,2019

2. Functional dioecy and andromonoecy in Solanum;Evolution (N Y),1989

3. Evolution of floral form : Electrostatic forces, pollination, and adaptive compromise;New Phytol,2001

4. THE SCENT OF A MALE: THE ROLE OF FLORAL VOLATILES IN POLLINATION OF A GENDER DIMORPHIC PLANT

5. Dissecting the causes of variation in intra‐inflorescence allocation in a sexually polymorphic species, Fragaria virginiana (Rosaceae)

Cited by 2 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3