Dioecy in Amborella trichopoda: evidence for genetically based sex determination and its consequences for inferences of the breeding system in early angiosperms.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

This work aimed to gain insight into the breeding system at the base of living angiosperms through both character state reconstructions and the study of sex ratios and phenotypes in the likely sister to all other living angiosperms, Amborella trichopoda .

Methods

Sex phenotypes were mapped onto a phylogeny of basally diverging angiosperms using maximum parsimony. In parallel, sex ratios and phenotypes were studied over two consecutive flowering seasons in an ex situ population of A. trichopoda , while the sex ratio of an in situ population was also assessed.

Key results

Parsimony analyses failed to resolve the breeding system present at the base of living angiosperms, but indicated the importance of A. trichopoda for the future elucidation of this

SUBMITTER: Anger N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5604545 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature