Create your own conference schedule! Click here for full instructions

Abstract Detail


Ecological interactions affecting the evolutionof plant mating systems: Current research and future directions

Kariyat, Rupesh [1], Sinclair, Jordan [2].

Ecological interactions affecting the evolution of plant mating systems: Current research and future directions.

Self fertilization versus outcrossing among conspecific individuals is believed to be a major contributor to the evolution of plant mating systems. Due to the immobility and subsequent inability to control their growing environment, plant reproduction is influenced by a variety of factors: vectors for pollen transfer, population density and dispersion of conspecific individuals, spatial and temporal variation in gamete deployment, fruit and seed dispersal, and the ability to undergo selfing for reproductive assurance. Since Darwin, scientists have been trying to understand the effects of ecological factors that influence the evolution of plant mating systems using tools and techniques derived from plant reproductive ecology,pollination biology, herbivory, phylogenetic analyses of species distribution and evolution of reproductive traits, and biochemical and molecular analysis of fitness traits. Individually, these fields have evolved and made excellent progress towards addressing various aspects of mating system evolution. Although multiple stress factors work simultaneously, they are often addressed independently within a study system. A symposium which brings together leaders across various disciplines in the area of ecological interactions and plant reproductive biology would result in a synthesis of knowledge, and a more concrete understanding of the different aspects of plant mating system evolution which interact to produce the myriad of reproductive adaptations that are observed in nature. This symposium would be geared towards accumulating the most recent advances in the ecological interactions that affect plant mating evolution with the objective that-communicating recent scientific advances and perspectives in this area will serve as a catapult for future research and development. This symposium has the potential to attract scientists from a variety of disciplines within the ecological section of the BSA due to the broad range of ecological interactions.

Broader Impacts:


Log in to add this item to your schedule

1 - The Pennsylvania State University, Plant Biology, 208 Mueller Lab, Dept Of Biology, State College, PA, 16801, USA
2 - Wayne State University, Biology, 5047 Gullen Mall, Detroit, MI, 48202, USA, 3139488516

Keywords:
selfing
out crossing
plant mating systems
herbivory
biotic and abiotic stress
Evolution.

Presentation Type: Symposium or Colloquium Presentation
Session: SY06
Location: Delaware D/Hyatt
Date: Tuesday, July 10th, 2012
Time: 1:25 PM
Number: SY06SUM
Abstract ID:34


Copyright © 2000-2012, Botanical Society of America. All rights reserved