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

[509184]了解植物繁殖对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变异的原因，就无法理解植物生态学和进化。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都是繁殖的直接产物，种子，因为了解繁殖成功对植物育种计划是必要的。然而，关于植物繁殖的知识有限，因为大多数最新的信息是关于植物作为种子亲本的成功，尽管植物既作为种子亲本也作为花粉亲本繁殖。如果选择发生在植物通过花粉捐赠获得繁殖成功的能力上，那么植物的一些特征可能被误解或未被充分利用。这项研究的重点是测试选择是否发生在作为花粉亲本的植物上。通过人工选择实验研究了花粉供给能力是否具有遗传基础，并测试了这种能力的选择是否改变了植物的其他特性。之所以选择野生萝卜作为模式生物，是因为它非常容易处理，并且与作为作物种植的十字花科植物密切相关。该研究直接解决了植物进化生态学中的一个基本问题，也可能具有相当直接的农业意义。因为它涉及到从果实的不同区域选择种子，这项研究将探讨这种选择形式在植物育种中是否有用。一项对紫花苜蓿的研究已经表明，从果实的不同区域选择的种子具有不同的生长和繁殖特性。这个项目可以用来确定最具活力的种子是否通常来自不相关植物果实的特定区域，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.