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

9509184 马歇尔 了解植物繁殖对基础和应用都很重要 科学从基础科学的角度来看，如果不了解植物繁殖成功的变异原因，就无法理解植物生态学和进化。从应用的角度来看，植物繁殖是重要的，因为我们的许多农产品是繁殖的直接产品，种子，因为对繁殖成功的理解是 植物育种计划所必需的。然而，植物繁殖的知识一直是有限的，因为大多数目前的信息是关于植物作为种子亲本的成功，即使植物作为种子和花粉亲本繁殖。 如果选择发生在植物通过花粉捐赠实现繁殖成功的能力上，那么植物的一些特征可能被误解或利用不足。 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。人工选择实验被用来解决是否花粉捐赠能力是遗传基础，并测试是否选择这种能力改变植物的其他特性。选择野生萝卜作为模式生物是因为它非常容易工作，并且与作为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，也可能具有相当直接的农业意义。因为它涉及到从水果的不同区域选择种子，研究将解决这一问题， 选择的形式在植物育种中可能是有用的。一项关于苜蓿的研究已经表明，从不同水果区域选择的种子具有不同的生长和繁殖特性。 该项目可用于解决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.