Mating system contributes only slightly to female maintenance in gynodioecious Geranium maculatum (Geraniaceae).

ABSTRACT: Gynodioecy, the co-occurrence of female and hermaphroditic individuals within a population, is an important intermediate in the evolution of separate sexes. The first step, female maintenance, requires females to have higher seed fitness compared with hermaphrodites. A common mechanism thought to increase relative female fitness is inbreeding depression avoidance, the magnitude of which depends on hermaphroditic selfing rates and the strength of inbreeding depression. Less well studied is the effect of biparental inbreeding on female fitness. Biparental inbreeding can affect relative female fitness only if its consequence or frequency differs between sexes, which could occur if sex structure and genetic structure both occur within populations. To determine whether inbreeding avoidance and/

SUBMITTER: Van Etten ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4220722 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature