| Abstract Detail
Pollination Biology Layman, Nathan [1], Herlihy, Christopher R. [2], Busch, Jeremiah W. [1]. Modes of natural selection driving the shift from outcrossing to selfing. Patterns of parallel adaptive evolution are thought to reflect general and strong selective pressures in the natural world. In flowering plants, the transition from outcrossing to selfing has long been noted as a leading evolutionary trend, driven by a diverse array of selective advantages. Two direct benefits of selfing are thought to underlie its repeated evolution across the angiosperm family tree: 1) selfing increases seed production when pollinators or mates are scarce (reproductive assurance); and 2) selfing enjoys an intrinsic transmission advantage, even when plants make the same numbers of seed (automatic selection). To test these hypotheses, we backcrossed an S-locus mutation causing self-compatibility (SC) into a self-incompatible (SI) population of Leavenworthia alabamica. Using field experiments replicated in 4 natural populations across 2 years, we compared the pollen and seed fitness of morphologically indistinguishable SI and SC genotypes to test the two major hypotheses for the evolution of selfing. These results shed light on the initial selective advantages driving the fixation of mutations for selfing, before rapid secondary evolution obscures their inference.
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1 - Washington State University, School of Biological Sciences, P.O. Box 644236, Pullman, WA, 99164, USA
2 - Middle Tennessee State University, Department Of Biology, 1301 E Main St, PO Box 60, Murfreesboro, TN, 37132, USA
Keywords:
floral evolution
Leavenworthia
plant mating systems
self-incompatibility
selfish genes.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Topics
Session: 8
Location: Salon 6/The Shaw Conference Centre
Date: Monday, July 27th, 2015
Time: 10:45 AM
Number: 8010
Abstract ID:74
Candidate for Awards:None |
