Bee-Mediated Selection Favors Floral Sex Specialization in a Heterantherous Species: Strategies to Solve the Pollen Dilemma.

ABSTRACT: Animal-pollinated plants show a broad variation in floral morphology traits and gametophyte production within populations. Thus, floral traits related to plant reproduction and sexuality are usually exposed to pollinator-mediated selection. Such selective pressures may be even stronger in heterantherous and pollen flowers, in which pollen contributes to both bee feeding and pollination, overcoming the "pollen dilemma" or the inability to perform both functions simultaneously. We describe the phenotypic gender and sexual organ morphology of flowers in two populations of Macairea radula (Melastomataceae), a heterantherous and buzz-pollinated species with pollen flowers. We estimated selection gradients on these traits through female and male fitness components. Both populations showed sizeab

SUBMITTER: Oliveira LC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7760250 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature