When the going gets tough, the tough turn female: injury and sex expression in a sex-changing tree.

ABSTRACT: PREMISE:Plant sex is usually fixed, but in rare cases, sex expression is flexible and may be influenced by environmental factors. Theory links female sex expression to better health, but manipulative work involving the experimental change of health via injury is limited, particularly in sexually plastic species. A better understanding of mechanisms influencing shifts in sex is essential to our understanding of life history theory regarding trade-offs in sex allocation and differential mortality. METHODS:We investigated the relationship between physiological stress and sex expression in sexually plastic striped maple trees (Acer pensylvanicum) by inflicting damage of various intensities (crown pruning, defoliation, and hydraulic restriction). We then monitored the sex expression of injured

SUBMITTER: Blake-Mahmud J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7155049 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature