Support for Baker's law: Facultative self-fertilization ability decreases pollen limitation in experimental colonization.

Autor: Makowski H; Department of Biology, University of Virginia, PO Box 400328, Charlottesville, 22904, Virginia, USA.; Black Rock Forest, 65 Reservoir Road, Cornwall, New York, 12518, USA., Lamb K; Department of Biology, University of Virginia, PO Box 400328, Charlottesville, 22904, Virginia, USA., Galloway LF; Department of Biology, University of Virginia, PO Box 400328, Charlottesville, 22904, Virginia, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: American journal of botany [Am J Bot] 2024 Jun; Vol. 111 (6), pp. e16351. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 May 29.
DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.16351
Abstrakt: Premise: The ability to self-fertilize is predicted to provide an advantage in colonization because a single individual can reproduce and establish a next generation in a new location regardless of the density of mates. While there is theoretical and correlative support for this idea, the strength of mate limitation as a selective agent has not yet been delineated from other factors that can also select for self-fertilization in colonization of new habitats. We used known mating-system variation in the American bellflower (Campanula americana) to explore how plants' ability to self-fertilize can mitigate density-dependent reproduction and impact colonization success.
Methods: We created experimental populations of single individuals or a small number of plants to emulate isolated colonization events. These populations were composed of plants that differed in their ability to self-fertilize. We compared pollen limitation of the single individuals to that of small populations.
Results: Experimental populations of plants that readily self-fertilize produced consistent seed numbers regardless of population size, whereas plants with lower ability to self-fertilize had density-dependent reproduction with greater seed production in small populations than in populations composed of a single individual.
Conclusions: We experimentally isolated the effect of mate limitation in colonization and found that it can select for increased self-fertilization. We show the benefit of self-fertilization in colonization, which helps to explain geographic patterns of self-fertilization and shows support for Baker's law, a long-held hypothesis in the field of mating-system evolution.
(© 2024 The Authors. American Journal of Botany published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Botanical Society of America.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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