How much better are females? The occurrence of female advantage, its proximal causes and its variation within and among gynodioecious species

Dufaÿ, Mathilde; Billard, Emmanuelle

doi:10.1093/aob/mcr062

Cited by 104 publications

(146 citation statements)

References 113 publications

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“…This may potentially contribute to the female advantage reported for several traits (larger fruit set, larger seed set per fruit, higher quality of seeds) in several studies on this and other, closely related species. Inbreeding and selfing avoidance, resource allocation towards female reproduction and a reduction in attractiveness to enemies are clearly important proximate causes of female advantage in many gynodioecious plant species (Dufaÿ and Billard, 2012). Nevertheless, we suggest that more attention should be paid to potential differences in flower and stigma persistence as it may contribute to higher fruit set, seed set and seed quality in females, despite their smaller attractiveness to pollinators.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Females usually have a higher seed output, seeds that germinate better and/or have offspring of a higher quality (reviewed in Shykoff et al, 2003;Dufaÿ and Billard, 2012). Such female reproductive advantage has generally been attributed to three main, non-exclusive, proximal causes (Shykoff et al, 2003;Dufaÿ and Billard, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, females may avoid inbreeding, since they obligatorily need a hermaphrodite for pollination. Evidence for potential inbreeding depression in gynodioecious plants has been found (reviewed in Dufaÿ and Billard, 2012). However, many plants, including many gynodioecious ones, have evolved mechanisms to avoid self-pollination.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas these three mechanisms leading to a female advantage have received a lot of attention in recent studies and reviews (Shykoff et al, 2003;Ashman, 2007;Dufaÿ and Billard, 2012;Vega-Frutis et al, 2013), a mechanism that is rarely discussed is the potential difference in flower and stigma lifespan, which can affect pollination levels. In dioecious and monoecious plants female flowers generally remain open for a longer time than male flowers (Primack, 1985).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Prolonged stigma and flower lifespan in females of the gynodioecious plant Geranium sylvaticum

Elzinga

Varga

2017

Flora

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Please cite this article as: Elzinga, Jelmer A., Varga, Sandra, Prolonged stigma and flower lifespan in females of the gynodioecious plant Geranium sylvaticum.Flora http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.flora. 2016.11.007 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Our results show that stigma lifespan is almost twice as long in females as in hermaphrodites and intermediate plants. Also flower lifespan is longest in females. We discuss the potential mechanisms through which an increased floral lifespan can lead to a female advantage despite the generally lower pollinator visitation rates observed in females by reviewing available studies. Our study shows that increased floral persistence in females can be an important aspect in the maintenance of females in gynodioecious plants and should be taken into account as a potential proximate cause for a female advantage.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Prolonged stigma and flower lifespan in females of the gynodioecious plant Geranium sylvaticum

Elzinga

Varga

2017

Flora

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“…This contrasts with species in which hermaphrodites self-pollinate and only females are obligate outcrossers. In this case, females will benefit from both resource reallocation and inbreeding depression avoidance, which will increase their fitness advantage over hermaphrodites (reviewed in Dufay and Billard, 2012). Accordingly, Karron et al (2012) noted that gynodioecious species in which inbreeding avoidance plays a role in female advantage seem more likely to have dioecious relatives, compared with species in which that advantage stems only from resource reallocation.…”

Section: Does Gynodioecy Always Lead To Dioecy?mentioning

confidence: 99%

An angiosperm-wide analysis of the gynodioecy–dioecy pathway

Dufaÿ¹,

Champelovier²,

Käfer³

et al. 2014

Annals of Botany

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Aims About 6 % of an estimated total of 240 000 species of angiosperms are dioecious. The main precursors of this sexual system are thought to be monoecy and gynodioecy. A previous angiosperm-wide study revealed that many dioecious species have evolved through the monoecy pathway; some case studies and a large body of theoretical research also provide evidence in support of the gynodioecy pathway. If plants have evolved through the gynodioecy pathway, gynodioecious and dioecious species should co-occur in the same genera. However, to date, no large-scale analysis has been conducted to determine the prevalence of the gynodioecy pathway in angiosperms. In this study, this gap in knowledge was addressed by performing an angiosperm-wide survey in order to test for co-occurrence as evidence of the gynodioecy pathway. † Methods Data from different sources were compiled to obtain (to our knowledge) the largest dataset on gynodioecy available, with 275 genera that include at least one gynodioecious species. This dataset was combined with a dioecy dataset from the literature, and a study was made of how often dioecious and gynodioecious species could be found in the same genera using a contingency table framework. † Key Results It was found that, overall, angiosperm genera with both gynodioecious and dioecious species occur more frequently than expected, in agreement with the gynodioecy pathway. Importantly, this trend holds when studying different classes separately (or sub-classes, orders and families), suggesting that the gynodioecy pathway is not restricted to a few taxa but may instead be widespread in angiosperms. † Conclusions This work complements that previously carried out on the monoecy pathway and suggests that gynodioecy is also a common pathway in angiosperms. The results also identify angiosperm families where some (or all) dioecious species may have evolved from gynodioecious precursors. These families could be the targets of future small-scale studies on transitions to dioecy taking phylogeny explicitly into account.

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Hermaphroditism promotes mate diversity in flowering plants

Christopher

Mitchell

Trapnell

et al. 2019

American J of Botany

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PremiseGenetically diverse sibships are thought to increase parental fitness through a reduction in the intensity of sib competition, and through increased opportunities for seedling establishment in spatially or temporally heterogeneous environments. Nearly all research on mate diversity in flowering plants has focused on the number of fathers siring seeds within a fruit or on a maternal plant. Yet as hermaphrodites, plants can also accrue mate diversity by siring offspring on several pollen recipients in a population. Here we explore whether mate composition overlaps between the dual sex functions, and discuss the implications for plant reproductive success.MethodsWe established an experimental population of 49 Mimulus ringens (monkeyflower) plants, each trimmed to a single flower. Following pollination by wild bees, we quantified mate composition for each flower through both paternal and maternal function. Parentage was successfully assigned to 240 progeny, 98% of the sampled seeds.ResultsComparison of mate composition between male and female function revealed high mate diversity, with almost no outcross mates shared between the two sexual functions of the same flower.ConclusionsDual sex roles contribute to a near doubling of mate diversity in our experimental population of Mimulus ringens. This finding may help explain the maintenance of hermaphroditism under conditions that would otherwise favor the evolution of separate sexes.

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How much better are females? The occurrence of female advantage, its proximal causes and its variation within and among gynodioecious species

Cited by 104 publications

References 113 publications

Prolonged stigma and flower lifespan in females of the gynodioecious plant Geranium sylvaticum

Prolonged stigma and flower lifespan in females of the gynodioecious plant Geranium sylvaticum

An angiosperm-wide analysis of the gynodioecy–dioecy pathway

Hermaphroditism promotes mate diversity in flowering plants

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