Wind-borne insects mediate directional pollen transfer between desert fig trees 160 kilometers apart
Wind-borne insects mediate directional pollen transfer between desert fig trees 160 kilometers apart
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.0902213106
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发表时间：
2009-12-01
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Gilmartin, Philip M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Ahmed, Sophia;Compton, Stephen G.;Gilmartin, Philip M.
花粉在植物之间能移动多远的问题对栖息地破碎化、保护管理和转基因作物的遏制等多种主题都有影响。雌雄同株的非洲无花果树Ficus sycomorus L.依赖于小型、短命、夜间飞行、特定宿主的阿拉伯角榕小蜂（Ceratosolen arabicus Mayr）授粉。我们使用微卫星标记来描述一个地理隔离的河岸种群的F。梧桐生长沿着Ugab河在纳米布沙漠，纳米比亚，连同从已知的母亲的幼苗的亲子关系分析，以映射花粉运动在这个人口。通过这种方式，我们通过花粉运输追踪了昆虫在可识别的树木之间的运动，并记录了C。已知树木之间的距离超过160公里，与确认成功授粉事件的平均距离为88.6公里。观察到的传粉者的主要运动是在西风方向，向大海，反映季节性夜间风向和风传播的榕小蜂。我们的研究结果表明，存在一个广泛的panmictic人口的树木，非常适合克服地理隔离的影响。
The question of how far pollen can move between plants has implications for topics as diverse as habitat fragmentation, conservation management, and the containment of genetically modified crops. The monoecious African fig tree Ficus sycomorus L. relies on the small, short-lived, night-flying, host-specific fig wasp Ceratosolen arabicus Mayr for pollination. We used microsatellite markers to characterize a geographically isolated riparian population of F. sycomorus growing along the Ugab River in the Namib Desert, Namibia, together with paternity analysis of seedlings from known mothers, to map pollen movement within this population. In this way we tracked insect movements between individually recognizable trees by means of their pollen cargo and documented the movement of C. arabicus between known trees separated by more than 160 km, with a mean distance for confirmed successful pollination events of 88.6 km. The predominant observed movement of pollinators was in a westerly direction, toward the sea, reflecting seasonal nighttime wind direction and the wind-borne dispersal of fig wasps. Our results suggest the existence of an extensive panmictic population of trees that are well suited to overcome the effects of geographical isolation.