Can Non-Random Mating Result in Evolutionary Change: A Selection Experiment Using Wild Radish as a Model System

9509184 MARSHALL 了解植物繁殖对于基础科学和应用科学都很重要。从基础科学的角度来看，如果不了解植物繁殖成功率变异的原因，就无法理解植物生态学和进化论。从应用的角度来看，植物繁殖很重要，因为我们的许多农产品是繁殖的直接产品，即种子，并且因为了解繁殖成功对于植物育种计划是必要的。然而，植物繁殖的知识有限，因为大多数当前信息都是关于植物作为种子亲本的成功，即使植物既作为种子又作为花粉亲本进行繁殖。 如果选择是根据植物通过花粉捐赠实现繁殖成功的能力进行的，那么植物的某些特征可能会被误解或未得到充分利用。 这项研究的重点是测试作为花粉亲本的植物是否发生选择。人工选择实验用于确定花粉捐赠能力是否基于遗传，并测试这种能力的选择是否会改变植物的其他特征。选择野萝卜作为模型生物是因为它非常容易工作并且与作为农作物种植的十字花科植物密切相关。这项研究直接解决了植物进化生态学的一个基本问题，也可能对农业产生相当直接的影响。由于它涉及从水果的不同区域选择种子，因此研究将解决这种选择形式是否可用于植物育种。一项对苜蓿的研究已经表明，从不同地区的果实中选择的种子具有不同的生长和繁殖特性。 该项目可用于确定最有活力的种子是否通常来自不相关植物的果实的特定区域，从而确定这是否可能是植物育种计划中普遍有用的选择方法。

9509184 MARSHALL Understanding plant reproduction is important for both basic and applied science. From the basic science perspective, plant ecology and evolution cannot be understood without knowledge of the causes of variation in plant reproductive success. From an applied perspective, plant reproduction is important because many of our agricultural products are the direct products of reproduction, seeds, and because understanding of reproductive success is necessary to plant breeding programs. However, knowledge of plant reproduction has been limited because most current information is about success of plants as seed parents, even though plants reproduce both as seed and pollen parents. If selection is occurring on the ability of plants to achieve reproductive success through pollen donation, then some of the features of plants may have misinterpreted or under-utilized. This study focuses on testing whether selection is occurring on plants that act as pollen parents. An artificial selection experiment is used to address whether pollen donating ability is genetically based and to test whether selection on this ability alters other characteristics of plants. Wild radish has been chosen for the model organism because it is very easy to work and is closely related to crucifers that are grown as crops. The study directly addresses a fundamental issue in plant evolutionary ecology and may have rather direct agricultural implications as well. Because it involves selecting seeds from different regions of the fruits the research will address whether this form of selection could be useful in plant breeding. A study of alfalfa has already shown that seeds selected from different regions of fruits have different growth and reproductive characteristics. This project can be used to address whether the most vigorous seeds typically come from particular regions of fruits in an unrelated plant and thus whether this might be a generally useful method of selection in plant breeding programs.