Ecological genetics of sex ratios in plant populations

Barrett, Spencer C. H.; Yakimowski, Sarah B.; Field, David L.; Pickup, Melinda

doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0002

Cited by 120 publications

(123 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Restrictions on sexual recruitment and high levels of clonal propagation can preserve nonequilibrium sex ratios for surprisingly long periods after the initiation of populations by founding genotypes (42). Historical contingency may therefore play an important role in contributing to the striking variation in sex ratio commonly observed among populations of clonal dioecious species.…”

Section: Clonality In Plants With Sexual Polymorphismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influences of clonality on plant sexual reproduction

Barrett

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Flowering plants possess an unrivaled diversity of mechanisms for achieving sexual and asexual reproduction, often simultaneously. The commonest type of asexual reproduction is clonal growth (vegetative propagation) in which parental genotypes (genets) produce vegetative modules (ramets) that are capable of independent growth, reproduction, and often dispersal. Clonal growth leads to an expansion in the size of genets and increased fitness because large floral displays increase fertility and opportunities for outcrossing. Moreover, the clonal dispersal of vegetative propagules can assist "mate finding," particularly in aquatic plants. However, there are ecological circumstances in which functional antagonism between sexual and asexual reproductive modes can negatively affect the fitness of clonal plants. Populations of heterostylous and dioecious species have a small number of mating groups (two or three), which should occur at equal frequency in equilibrium populations. Extensive clonal growth and vegetative dispersal can disrupt the functioning of these sexual polymorphisms, resulting in biased morph ratios and populations with a single mating group, with consequences for fertility and mating. In populations in which clonal propagation predominates, mutations reducing fertility may lead to sexual dysfunction and even the loss of sex. Recent evidence suggests that somatic mutations can play a significant role in influencing fitness in clonal plants and may also help explain the occurrence of genetic diversity in sterile clonal populations. Highly polymorphic genetic markers offer outstanding opportunities for gaining novel insights into functional interactions between sexual and clonal reproduction in flowering plants.clonal growth | dioecy | geitonogamy | heterostyly | somatic mutations

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Section: Clonality In Plants With Sexual Polymorphismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influences of clonality on plant sexual reproduction

Barrett

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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220

195

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“…Mechanisms that bias the sex ratios of individual seed families are well documented in other dioecious species and can operate in spite of strict genetic sex-determining systems (reviewed in De Jong and Klinkhamer, 2002;Barrett et al, 2010). For example, Rumex acetosa (Rychlewski and Zarzycki, 1975), Rumex nivalis (Stehlik and Barrett, 2005;Stehlik et al, 2008) S. latifolia (Taylor, 1994) and Urtica dioica (De Jong and Klinkhamer, 2002;De Jong et al, 2005;De Jong, 2007, 2009) all display family-level sex ratio heterogeneity despite the presence of chromosomal or, in the case of dioecious U. dioica (De Jong et al, 2005), evidently single-locus sex-determining systems.…”

Section: Sex Determination In Dioecious Mercurialis Annuamentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex determination in dioecious Mercurialis annua and its close diploid and polyploid relatives

Russell

Pannell

2014

Heredity

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Separate sexes have evolved on numerous independent occasions from hermaphroditic ancestors in flowering plants. The mechanisms of sex determination is known for only a handful of such species, but, in those that have been investigated, it usually involves alleles segregating at a single locus, sometimes on heteromorphic sex chromosomes. In the genus Mercurialis, transitions between combined (hermaphroditism) and separate sexes (dioecy or androdioecy, where males co-occur with hermaphrodites rather than females) have occurred more than once in association with hybridisation and shifts in ploidy. Previous work has pointed to an unusual 3-locus system of sex determination in dioecious populations. Here, we use crosses and genotyping for a sex-linked marker to reject this model: sex in diploid dioecious M. annua is determined at a single locus with a dominant male-determining allele (an XY system). We also crossed individuals among lineages of Mercurialis that differ in their ploidy and sexual system to ascertain the extent to which the same sex-determination system has been conserved following genome duplication, hybridisation and transitions between dioecy and hermaphroditism. Our results indicate that the maledetermining element is fully capable of determining gender in the progeny of hybrids between different lineages. Specifically, males crossed with females or hermaphrodites always generate 1:1 male:female or male:hermaphrodite sex ratios, respectively, regardless of the ploidy levels involved (diploid, tetraploid or hexaploid). Our results throw further light on the genetics of the remarkable variation in sexual systems in the genus Mercurialis. They also illustrate the almost identical expression of sexdetermining alleles in terms of sexual phenotypes across multiple divergent backgrounds, including those that have lost separate sexes altogether.

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“…During our analysis, we confirmed the usefulness of the RAY-F and RAY-R primers (Korpelainen 2002). These primers, which amplify RAYSI, the male-specific sequence that was present on the Biased sex ratios are common in populations of dioecious species and the deviations from equality might be triggered by a variety of mechanisms (Barrett et al 2010) and may reflect the interactions between sex-based differences in the costs of reproduction, life history, and ecological factors (Field et al 2013). Stehlik et al (2008) demonstrated that the local pollination environment can influence the progeny sex ratios in populations of dioecious plants such as R. nivalis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%