The role of infectious disease in the evolution of females: Evidence from anther-smut disease on a gynodioecious alpine carnation.

ABSTRACT: In flowering plants, the evolution of females is widely hypothesized to be the first step in the evolutionary pathway to separate male and female sexes, or dioecy. Natural enemies have the potential to drive this evolution if they preferentially attack hermaphrodites over females. We studied sex-based differences in exposure to anther-smut (Microbotryum), a sterilizing pollinator-transmitted disease, in Dianthus pavonius, a gynodioecious perennial herb. We found that within a heavily diseased population, females consistently had lower levels of Microbotryum spore deposition relative to hermaphrodites and that this difference was driven by rapid floral closing in females following successful pollination. We further show that this protective closing behavior is frequency dependent; females c

SUBMITTER: Bruns EL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6610882 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature