Kin discrimination allows plants to modify investment towards pollinator attraction

Abstract

Pollinators tend to be preferentially attracted to large floral displays that may comprise more than one plant in a patch. Attracting pollinators thus not only benefits individuals investing in advertising, but also other plants in a patch through a ‘magnet’ effect. Accordingly, there could be an indirect fitness advantage to greater investment in costly floral displays by plants in kin-structured groups than when in groups of unrelated individuals. Here, we seek evidence for this strategy by manipulating relatedness in groups of the plant Moricandia moricandioides, an insect-pollinated herb that typically grows in patches. As predicted, individuals growing with kin, particularly at high density, produced larger floral displays than those growing with non-kin. Investment in attracting pollinators was thus moulded by the presence and relatedness of neighbours, exemplifying the importance of kin recognition in the evolution of plant reproductive strategies.

Sex‐specific selection on plant architecture through “budget” and “direct” effects in experimental populations of the wind‐pollinated herb, Mercurialis annua

“…; Torices et al. ), we would expect them to deploy such sensitivity to optimize their mating opportunities too.…”

“…In this context, it is interesting that the gametophytes of certain homosporous ferns indeed switch gender in response to the composition of their local mating neighborhood (DeSoto et al 2008). Given the growing evidence that flowering plants can be sensitive to the identity and status of their neighbors (Belter and Cahill 2015;Ninkovic et al 2016;Torices et al 2018), we would expect them to deploy such sensitivity to optimize their mating opportunities too. AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS J.R.P., P.D., and J.T.…”

Inclusive fitness, asymmetric competition and kin selection in plants

“…The Mediterranean Brassicaceae Moricandia moricandioides shows a plastic response in its investment in pollinator attraction in response to genetic relatedness of its neighbours and produce larger floral display when growing with kin compared to non-kin, suggesting an indirect fitness advantage of higher investment in floral displays (Torices et al 2018). Kin recognition in plants is not confined to just a few rare plant species, but is documented in common and widespread species like Plantago (Tonsor 1989) and Trifolium (Lepik et al 2012), and also in crop species like Soybean (Murphy et al 2017) and rice (Yang et al 2018).…”

Sexual selection in complex communities: Integrating interspecific reproductive interference in structured populations

“…For example, male wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) form cooperative courtship coalitions, where helper males do not reproduce but gain inclusive fitness through increasing the reproductive success of their male relatives (Krakauer 2005). Similar strategies have been reported in nonlekking species suggesting that such indirect effects may be a general property of sexual selection in structured populations (Pizzari et al 2015;Łukasiewicz et al 2017;Lymbery and Simmons 2017;Rosher et al 2017;Tan et al 2017;Torices et al 2018).…”