Sex change in plants: Old and new observations and new hypotheses

Freeman, D. Carl; Harper, Kimball T.; Charnov, Eric L.

doi:10.1007/bf00346825

Cited by 321 publications

(248 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…6, p. 230). Despite subsequent experimental demonstrations of stress-induced maleness in plants, quantitative Darwinian treatment remained lacking until Freeman et al (7) used a newly emergent theory on environmental sex determination (8,9) to present an evolutionarily stable strategy model predicting stress-induced maleness in plants occupying patchily stressful environments. Freeman et al (7) considered the example of patch dryness, but stress could mean any condition induced by the physical or biological environment that reduces scope for resource allocation or survivorship and, hence, reduces fitness (10).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress promotes maleness in hermaphroditic modular animals

Hughes

Manríquez

Bishop

et al. 2003

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

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Sex-allocation theory developed for hermaphroditic plants predicts that impaired phenotype or reduced parental survivorship caused by environmental stress should induce relatively greater allocation to the male function. We provide experimental evidence of stress-induced maleness, already well documented in flowering plants, in a modular animal. By using cloned copies of replicate genotypes, we show that the marine bryozoan Celleporella hyalina increases the ratio of male to female modules in response to diverse environmental stressors. Mating trials confirmed that paternity is determined by fair-raffle sperm competition, which should obviate local mate competition at characteristic population density and promote the advantage of increased male allocation. The demonstrated similarity to plants transcends specific physiological pathways and suggests that stress-induced bias toward male function is a general response of hermaphroditic modular organisms to impaired prospects for parental productivity or survival.sex allocation ͉ sperm competition ͉ modularity ͉ hermaphrodites ͉ Bryozoa

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress promotes maleness in hermaphroditic modular animals

Hughes

Manríquez

Bishop

et al. 2003

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

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“…Individuals of a large number of dioecious species are able to change their sexual expression showing sex lability (reviewed in Freeman et al 1980;Korpelainen 1998) and this may cause biased sex ratios (vi). Two mutually not exclusive explanations have been proposed to explain sex lability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, several environmental conditions have been reported to be responsible for switching sex (reviewed in Korpelainen 1998). Sex changes in plants have been considered as a strategy of sex allocation to enhance fitness over the lifetime of plants (Freeman et al 1980;Policansky 1981;Lloyd and Bawa 1984). Sexually labile plants have the potential to have either female, male or both sex organs, with some environmental feature determining which genes are switched on.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex ratio and spatial distribution of male and female Antennaria dioica (Asteraceae) plants

Varga

Kytöviita

2011

Acta Oecologica

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Sex ratio, sex spatial distribution and sexual dimorphism in reproduction and arbuscular mycorrhizal colonisation were investigated in the dioecious clonal plant Antennaria dioica (Asteraceae). Plants were monitored for five consecutive years in six study plots in Oulanka, northern Finland. Sex ratio, spatial distribution of sexes, flowering frequency, number of floral shoots and the number and weight of inflorescences were recorded. In addition, intensity of mycorrhizal fungi in the roots was assessed. Both sexes flowered each year with a similar frequency, but the overall genet sex ratio was strongly female-biased. The bivariate Ripley's analysis of the sex distribution showed that within most plots sexes were randomly distributed except for one plot. Sexual dimorphism was expressed as larger floral and inflorescence production and heavier inflorescences in males. In addition, the roots of both sexes were colonised to a similar extent by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. The female sex-biased flowering ratios reported are not consistent among years and cannot be explained in terms of spatial segregation of the sexes or sex lability. The possible reasons for the female-biased sex ratio are discussed.

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“…Rather than interpreting results in light of fixed sexuality of individuals, we suggest that they could be seen as indications of dactylanthus as a dioecious species with labile sex, environmental sex determination (ESD) and associated sex change of individuals (Dellaporta and Calderon-Urrea 1993;Freeman et al 1980 and references therein). Resource availability has been identified as one factor for ESD (Freeman et al 1980), with increased resources often linked to a higher percentage of the female form of a species.…”

Section: Sex Distributionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Resource availability has been identified as one factor for ESD (Freeman et al 1980), with increased resources often linked to a higher percentage of the female form of a species. For the holoparasitic dactylanthus resources are solely determined by the host tree, therefore, the early dominance of female inflorescences and a change to male dominance could indicate a worsening of supply from host to parasite over time since the initial infection.…”

Section: Sex Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Successful translocation of the threatened New Zealand root-holoparasite Dactylanthus taylorii (Mystropetalaceae)

Holzapfel¹,

Dodgson²,

Rohan

2015

Plant Ecol

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The conservation and translocation of threatened holoparasitic flowering plants provide added challenges due to their complete host dependency and often large knowledge gaps of their autecology. Here, we present the first successful, quantified field trial to establish from seed populations of dactylanthus (Dactylanthus taylorii, Mystropetalaceae), a threatened New Zealand endemic rootholoparasitic angiosperm. Establishment was monitored at four sites at Waipapa, Pureora Forest Park. The impact of two different sowing methods (broad-and central-sown), canopy state (as a proxy for soil moisture levels) and three dominant host species were tested. Establishment of dactylanthus was confirmed in 22 out of 24 plots 10 years after sowing, with earliest emergence after 4 years. Average and maximum inflorescence numbers per plot were similar to those of protected wild populations. The only opencanopy site performed worse in comparison with a closed-canopy site sharing the same dominant host species; differences in root availability and survival of the desiccation-sensitive seeds were regarded as the most likely explanations. Host species dominance had a significant impact on inflorescence numbers, indicating host preference in the species despite a wide host range. In contrast to longer-established wild populations, most of which are male-biased, female inflorescences strongly outnumbered males, considered as evidence of environmental sex determination and sex-switching of individuals. Findings from this study have increased our knowledge of the biology of dactylanthus, confirmed translocation as an effective tool in the conservation of the species and should be applicable for the protection of threatened parasitic plants species elsewhere in the world.

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Sex change in plants: Old and new observations and new hypotheses

Cited by 321 publications

References 72 publications

Stress promotes maleness in hermaphroditic modular animals

Stress promotes maleness in hermaphroditic modular animals

Sex ratio and spatial distribution of male and female Antennaria dioica (Asteraceae) plants

Successful translocation of the threatened New Zealand root-holoparasite Dactylanthus taylorii (Mystropetalaceae)

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