Chemical and physical defense traits in two sexual forms of Opuntia robusta in Central Eastern Mexico.

ABSTRACT: Sexually dimorphic plants provide an excellent opportunity for examining the differences in the extent of their defense against herbivores because they exhibit sex-related differences in reproductive investment. Such differences enable comparison of the sex with high reproduction expenses with the sex that expends less. The more costly sex is usually also better defended against herbivores. Generally, females are considered more valuable than hermaphrodites in terms of fitness; however, hermaphrodites are more valuable if they can produce seed by autonomous selfing, provided that the inbreeding depression is low and pollen is limited. We studied a gynodioecious population of Opuntia robusta from Central-Eastern Mexico, which has been reported to be trioecious, dioecious, or hermaphrodite,

SUBMITTER: Janczur MK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3943789 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature