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Abstract Detail



The Evolution of Pollen Performance

Lankinen, Asa [1], Hydbom, Sofia [2], Strandh, Maria [1].

Experimental evolution during pollen competition in a mixed-mating plant: presence of multiple competitors rapidly results in enhanced female conflict costs, pollen adaptation and a correlated response on mating-system related floral traits.

Experimental evidence suggests that adaptive evolutionary change in response to sexual selection and sexual conflict can be surprisingly fast in animals. In plants, however, such knowledge is limited, as experimental evolution studies manipulating the strength of sexual selection have not been conducted. In the mixed-mating annual Collinsia heterophylla, recipient plants benefit from delaying stigma receptivity while pollen donors benefit from inducing early receptivity, supporting the occurrence of a sexual conflict over timing of stigma receptivity. To test how selection on pollen competitive ability in relation to sexual conflict influences trait evolution we performed an experimental evolution study. We created C. heterophylla lines that either was monogamous or polyandrous (crossed with one or two pollen donors, respectively, at early floral stages), predominantly generating selection on pollen as recipient plants contributed equally to the seed pool. After four generations of artificial selection we found reduced seed production in the polyandrous selection line compared to the monogamous selection line and a control line. Crosses performed both within and between lines showed that the cost of reduced seed production was generated by pollen from the polyandrous line, which is in agreement with the prediction that sexually antagonistic evolution generates sex-specific costs. Additionally, we found evidence for enhanced pollen competitive ability as well as a correlated positive effect on timing of anther-stigma contact, a trait that determines timing of self-pollination. In conclusion, our study suggests that artificial sexual selection on pollen can lead to rapid evolutionary change in plants and correlated effects on mating system-related traits. 


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1 - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Plant Protection Biology, P.O. Box 44, Alnarp, S-230 53 , Sweden
2 - Lund University, Biology, Ecology Building, Lund, S-223 62 , Sweden

Keywords:
none specified

Presentation Type: Symposium or Colloquium Presentation
Session: SY03
Location: Snake/Boise Centre
Date: Monday, July 28th, 2014
Time: 5:00 PM
Number: SY03008
Abstract ID:214
Candidate for Awards:None


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