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Abstract Detail



Pollination Biology

Koptur, Suzanne [1].

Effects of inbreeding via self-pollination in fragmented populations – comparing populations from habitat fragments of different sizes and degrees of isolation.

The negative effects of inbreeding have led to floral features that may promote pollen competition in plants with mixed-mating systems. Pollen competition may purge deleterious alleles expressed in haploid pollen, and thus may reduce the fitness cost of inbreeding. Offspring produced by more intense competition among self-pollen may have higher fitness than offspring produced by less intense competition. We tested this hypothesis in Ruellia succulenta (Acanthaceae), fully self-compatible and facultatively autogamous, hand-pollinating flowers with pollen loads from others on the same plant (geitonogamous self-fertilization) deposited in one large clump (low pollen dispersion) or spread out over the large stigma (high pollen dispersion), to produce more and less intense pollen competition. We used 5 plants per site, grown in the greenhouse from cuttings collected from 12 pine rockland sites (3 in continuous habitat and 9 habitat fragments) in south Florida. Hand-pollinated flowers were followed to fruit maturation, when fruit were harvested and weighed, seeds counted and weighed, and germinated in well-plates. Over all the sites (populations), fruits from flowers experiencing more intense pollen competition produced more and heavier seeds, which germinated more quickly than progeny from flowers experiencing less pollen competition. These differences were most pronounced in continuous habitat and the larger, closer fragments, presumably due more outbreeding in those populations due to greater flower visitation and pollen movement among plants.


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1 - Florida International University, Department Of Biological Sciences, 11200 SW 8th St, Miami, FL, 33199, USA

Keywords:
habitat fragmentation
Inbreeding Depression
pollen competition
self-pollination.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Topics
Session: 8
Location: Salon 6/The Shaw Conference Centre
Date: Monday, July 27th, 2015
Time: 9:00 AM
Number: 8004
Abstract ID:1374
Candidate for Awards:None


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