Functional consequences of temporal reversal of height dimorphism for pollen and seed dispersal in a dioecious plant

Zhi-Hua Zeng ¹Qian Yu ²Qing-Hong Feng ³Xin-Jia Wang ⁴Li Zhong ⁴Hua-Ying Sun ⁵Hong Wang ⁴De-Zhu Li ⁶Spencer C.H.Barrett ⁷Wei Zhou⁸

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作者信息

1. Germplasm Bank of Wild Species,Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650201,China;CAS Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia,Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650201,China;Yunnan Key Laboratory of Crop Wild Relatives Omics,Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650201,China;University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049,China
2. Germplasm Bank of Wild Species,Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650201,China;CAS Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia,Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650201,China
3. Germplasm Bank of Wild Species,Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650201,China
4. CAS Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia,Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650201,China
5. College of Chinese Materia Medica,Yunnan University of Chinese Medicine,Kunming 650500,China
6. Germplasm Bank of Wild Species,Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650201,China;CAS Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia,Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650201,China;Yunnan Key Laboratory of Crop Wild Relatives Omics,Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650201,China
7. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,University of Toronto,Toronto M5S 3B2,ON,Canada
8. Germplasm Bank of Wild Species,Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650201,China;CAS Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia,Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650201,China;Yunnan Key Laboratory of Crop Wild Relatives Omics,Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650201,China;Lijiang Forest Biodiversity National Observation and Research Station,Kunming Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Liji
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Abstract

The adaptive significance of phenotypic differences between females and males can provide insights into sex-specific selection and the evolution of sexual dimorphism.Dioecious plants commonly exhibit sexual dimorphism in height,although its ecological and evolutionary significance have rarely been examined experimentally.Here,we investigate the functional consequences of the temporal reversal of height dimorphism for pollen and seed dispersal in dioecious Rumex hastatulus Baldw.,a species in which males are taller than females at flowering and the reverse pattern occurs at fruiting.Populations of this colonizing weed are wind-pollinated and seeds are wind-dispersed.In a glasshouse experiment we manipulated the height of pollen donors and using sex-specific genetic markers compared the paternal success of males of contrasting height and investigated whether seed families showed evidence of sexual dimorphism in early life-history traits.In a second glasshouse experiment using fruiting plants we also examined how female height influenced the distance that seeds were dispersed.We found that taller males had significantly higher siring success than males of equivalent height to flowering females.Similarly,taller females dispersed fruit to greater distances than shorter females.Female seeds were significantly heavier than male seeds and germinated more rapidly,although early seedling growth was greater in males.Our study suggests that the striking sex reversal of height in R.hastatulus likely functions to optimize the contrasting reproductive functions of the sexes by promoting increased pollen and seed dispersal distances.Improved dispersal quality could limit inbreeding and reduce local mate and resource competition within populations.

Key words

dioecy/plant height/pollen dispersal/Rumex hastatulus/seed dispersal/sexual dimorphism

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基金项目

中国科学院战略规划重点项目(XDB31000000)

国家自然科学基金(31971394)

Key Basic Research Program of Yunnan Province(202201AS070057)

Key Basic Research Program of Yunnan Province(202101BC070003)

Key Basic Research Program of Yunnan Province()

Key Basic Research Program of Yunnan Province(202103AC100003)

Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada(RGPIN/06442-2017)

出版年

2024

植物分类学报

中国科学院植物研究所　中国植物学会

植物分类学报

CSTPCD

影响因子：0.322

ISSN：1674-4918

参考文献量71

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