The functional significance of a stigma color polymorphism in Acer pictum subsp. mono (aceraceae)  

作　　者：Zhi-Qun Yang Da-Yong Zhang Wei-Ning Bai 

机构地区：[1]Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering,College of Life Sciences,Beijing Normal University,Beijing 100875,China [2]State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolution,Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100093,China

出　　处：《Journal of Plant Ecology》2015年第2期166-172,共7页植物生态学报（英文版）

基　　金：National Natural Science Foundation of China(41371073 and 31421063).

摘　　要：Aims Exploring the characteristics and function of a flower color poly-morphism contributes to our understanding of floral evolution in angiosperms.However,little information is available on stigma color polymorphisms in flowering plants despite their important functional role in plant reproduction.Methods We studied a stigma color polymorphism at the individual level in Acer pictum subsp.mono(aka A.mono)by investigating stigma-color morph proportion and comparing stigma performance and compo-nents of female fitness(pollen adhesion,pollen germination,fruit set,seed set and fruit weight)between the two morphs(red and greenish-yellow stigma)within natural populations at Dongling mountain in the north of China.in the flowering period,we conducted hand pol-lination in natural populations and then made microscopic observa-tions using the aniline blue fluorescence method.Important Findingsindividuals in the studied populations did not change their stigma color between years,and flowers produced by a single tree were uniform in their stigma color.This strongly suggests that stigma color variation is genetically controlled.The percentage of the red stigma flowers with germinated pollen grains was significantly higher than that of the greenish-yellow stigma flowers when hand pollination was conducted in the early flowering period,but not so in the late flowering period.There was no significant difference in the percentage of flowers with pollen adhesion to the stigma between the two morphs.Fruit set of the red morph was signifi-cantly higher than that of the greenish-yellow morph.our findings suggest that the red morph may be more advantageous for pollen germination and fruit set than the greenish-yellow morph,which may provide a functional explanation for the high incidence of the red stigma morph in the studied populations.alternative explana-tions for the stigma color polymorphism are discussed to stimulate further work.

关 键 词：ACER female fitness stigma color polymorphism stigma performance 

分 类 号：TP3[自动化与计算机技术—计算机科学与技术]