Plasticity of floral sex allocation within inflorescences of hermaphrodite Aconitum gymnandrum  

作　　者：Zhi-Gang Zhao Zuo-Jun Liu Jeffrey K.Conner 

机构地区：[1]State Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-Ecosystems,School of Life Sciences,Lanzhou University,222 Tianshui Road Chengguan District,Lanzhou 730000,China [2]College of Life Science and Engineering,Lanzhou University of Technology,287 Langongpin Road Qilihe District,Lanzhou 730000,China [3]Kellogg Biological Station and Department of Plant Biology,Michigan State University,3700 East Gull Lake Drive,Hickory Corners,MI 49060,USA

出　　处：《Journal of Plant Ecology》2015年第2期130-135,共6页植物生态学报（英文版）

基　　金：Natural Science Foundation of China(30900162,3096006 and 31370402);Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(lzujbky-2013-102).

摘　　要：Aims sex allocation in plants is often plastic,enabling individuals to adjust to variable environments.However,the predicted male-biased sex allocation in response to low resource conditions has rarely been experimentally tested in hermaphroditic plants.in particular,it is unknown whether distal flowers in linear inflorescences show a larger shift to male allocation relative to basal flowers when resources are reduced.in this study,we measure position-depend-ent plasticity of floral sex allocation within racemes of Aconitum gymnandrum in response to reduced resource availability.Methods using a defoliation treatment in the field applied to potted plants from a nested half-sibling design,we examined the effects of the treatment,flower position,family and their interactions.Important Findingsallocation to male function increased with more distal flower posi-tion,while female allocation either did not change with position or declined at the most distal flowers.Defoliation significantly reduced the mass of both the androecium and gynoecium,but not anther number or carpel number.gynoecial mass declined more strongly with defoliation than did androecial mass,resulting in a significant increase in the androecium/gynoecium ratio as predicted by sex allocation theory.Plastic responses of androecium mass and gynoecium mass were affected by flower position,with less mass lost in basal flowers,but similar plastic magnitude in both sexual traits across flower position lead to consistent variation in the androecium/gynoecium ratio along the inflorescence.a sig-nificant treatment*paternal family interaction for the androecium/gynoecium ratio is evidence for additive genetic variation for plastic floral sex allocation,which means that further evolution of alloca-tion can occur.

关 键 词：Aconitum gymnandrum sex allocation PLASTICITY inflorescence architecture 

分 类 号：O62[理学—有机化学]