Inbreeding depression in dioecious populations of the plant Mercurialis annua: comparisons between outcrossed progeny and the progeny of self-fertilized feminized males

Eppley, Sarah M.; Pannell, John R.

doi:10.1038/hdy.2009.21

Cited by 20 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…Reduced viability is often associated with processes such as hybridization and inbreeding (Carr and Dudash 1997, Golmirzaie et al 1998, Melser et al 1999, Busch 2005, Glaettli and Goudet 2006, Eppley and Pannell 2009, Bures et al 2010, or environmental stress such as exposure to high temperature or pollutants (Handique and Baruah 1995, Tretyakova et al 1996, Gottardini et al 2008, Pasqualini et al 2011.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollen quality for pollinators tracks pollen quality for plants in Mimulus guttatus

2014

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Abstract. Pollen viability ranges substantially among and within plant species, and can be reduced by various factors, including pollution and inbreeding. While it is evident that a reduction in gamete quality reduces the male component of plant fitness, the implications of changes in pollen viability on the nutritional value of pollen for pollinators has not been studied. To test this, we created a greenhouse population of Mimulus guttatus plants that ranged in pollen viability from 17% to 98.5% and related both pollen quantity and pollen protein content to pollen viability. We found that crude protein concentration ranged from 15% to 45% and was positively associated with pollen viability. We also found that pollen mass per flower ranged 5-fold, also positively related to pollen viability. Across experimental plants, there was an 11-fold difference in protein mass per flower between plants of the lowest and highest pollen viabilities. We conclude that conditions that lead to reduced pollen viability, especially early in pollen development, may greatly reduce the awards available to plant pollinators.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollen quality for pollinators tracks pollen quality for plants in Mimulus guttatus

2014

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“…Our results provide values for the relative seed and pollen fertilities of hermaphrodites relative to unisexuals. Previous experiments involving M. annua have shown that inbreeding depression is close to 0 in Iberian populations (i.e., v s is close to 1.0; [19], [37]). Finally, the influence of plant densities on selfing rates ( s ) has been measured across a range of plant densities similar to those used in this study (i.e., we can infer that s was probably around 0.8 and 0.2, respectively, under low densities and high densities in our experiment here [21]).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…The fact that hermaphrodites reduced their female reproductive effort in the absence of males could be attributable to the effects of increased selfing and inbreeding depression. However, this seems unlikely, given that Iberian populations of M. annua express almost no inbreeding depression [19], [37].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two's Company, Three's a Crowd: Experimental Evaluation of the Evolutionary Maintenance of Trioecy in Mercurialis annua (Euphorbiaceae)

2012

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Trioecy is an uncommon sexual system in which males, females, and hermaphrodites co-occur as three clearly different gender classes. The evolutionary stability of trioecy is unclear, but would depend on factors such as hermaphroditic sex allocation and rates of outcrossing vs. selfing. Here, trioecious populations of Mercurialis annua are described for the first time. We examined the frequencies of females, males and hermaphrodites across ten natural populations and evaluated the association between the frequency of females and plant densities. Previous studies have shown that selfing rates in this species are density-dependent and are reduced in the presence of males, which produce substantially more pollen than hermaphrodites. Accordingly, we examined the evolutionary stability of trioecy using an experiment in which we (a) indirectly manipulated selfing rates by altering plant densities and the frequency of males in a fully factorial manner across 20 experimental plots and (b) examined the effect of these manipulations on the frequency of the three sex phenotypes in the next generation of plants. In the parental generation, we measured the seed and pollen allocations of hermaphrodites and compared them with allocations by unisexual plants. In natural populations, females occurred at higher frequencies in denser patches, a finding consistent with our expectations. Under our experimental conditions, however, no combination of plant densities and male frequencies was associated with increased frequencies of females. Our results suggest that the factors that regulate female frequencies in trioecious populations of M. annua are independent of those regulating male frequencies (density), and that the stable co-existence of all three sex phenotypes within populations is unlikely.

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“…Although competition probably occurred both above and below ground, it seems plausible that belowground interactions may have been more critical for individuals (here, males) that are known to make heavy demands on their soil environment. Either way, because aboveground biomass is strongly correlated with reproductive output in both males and females of M. annua (Pannell 1997; Eppley & Pannell 2009), effects of competitors on it have clear implications for the plants’ Darwinian fitness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual dimorphism in intra‐ and interspecific competitive ability of the dioecious herb Mercurialis annua

2010

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Males and females of dioecious plant species often show different responses to competition with individuals of the same or opposite gender, but almost no data are available on the outcome of competition with members of other species. Here, we show that male and female individuals of the wind-pollinated herb Mercurialis annua are sexually dimorphic in both their intraspecific and interspecific competitive abilities. In a controlled experiment, we found that both sexes of M. annua were negatively affected by interspecific competition, but the sensitivity of males and females depended on the identity of their competitor species, with females tending to suppress the aboveground growth of competitor species more than males. Further, we found that intrasexual and intersexual competition affected the aboveground growth of males but not that of females: only males showed a significant reduction in growth when growing with conspecific competitors (male or female). We discuss our results with reference to related studies that suggest that males and females of M. annua have different resource requirements for reproduction, which in turn affect their competitive abilities.

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Inbreeding depression in dioecious populations of the plant Mercurialis annua: comparisons between outcrossed progeny and the progeny of self-fertilized feminized males

Cited by 20 publications

References 79 publications

Pollen quality for pollinators tracks pollen quality for plants in Mimulus guttatus

Pollen quality for pollinators tracks pollen quality for plants in Mimulus guttatus

Two's Company, Three's a Crowd: Experimental Evaluation of the Evolutionary Maintenance of Trioecy in Mercurialis annua (Euphorbiaceae)

Sexual dimorphism in intra‐ and interspecific competitive ability of the dioecious herb Mercurialis annua

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