Am. J. Bot. Plant Physiology
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by López-Villavicencio, M.
Right arrow Articles by Shykoff, J. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by López-Villavicencio, M.
Right arrow Articles by Shykoff, J. A.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by López-Villavicencio, M.
Right arrow Articles by Shykoff, J. A.
(American Journal of Botany. 2005;92:896-900.)
© 2005 Botanical Society of America, Inc.

Brief Communication

Sex-specific effect of Microbotryum violaceum (Uredinales) spores on healthy plants of the gynodioecious Gypsophila repens (Caryophyllaceae)1

Manuela López-Villavicencio2, Antoine Branca, Tatiana Giraud and Jacqui A. Shykoff

Laboratoire d'Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, UMR 8079 CNRS-UPS, Bâtiment 360, Université Paris-Sud, F-91405 Orsay cedex, France

Females of gynodioecious species need to have reproductive advantages to compensate for their lack of male function and assure their maintenance in natural populations. Females may be more fecund than hermaphrodites because they reallocate resources from male to female function, avoid selfing and inbreeding depression, or produce higher quality offspring by screening arriving pollen better. A novel type of female advantage is proposed that may be important for several species of gynodioecious Caryophyllaceae. The anther smut fungus Microbotryum violaceum generally sterilizes its infected hosts but even without infection, spore deposition can negatively affect the reproduction of healthy individuals. In Gypsophila repens, flowers of hermaphrodite plants experimentally pollinated with both fungal spores and pollen produced significantly fewer fruits and seeds than those that received pollen alone, whereas female reproduction was unaffected by spore deposition. This unexplored reproductive advantage of females is probably due to the larger stigmatic surface in pistillate flowers, that allows pollen germination despite the presence of spores. Because longer stigmas may also lead to increased spore deposition, these results raise questions regarding the infection probability for each sex, possible sex-specific defense mechanisms, and the general role of pathogens in the maintenance of females in natural gynodioecious populations.

Key Words: female maintenance • fungus • gynodioecy • Gypsophila • Microbotryum • pathogen • Uredinales






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2005 by the Botanical Society of America, Inc.