Dissertation Research: Interspecific Interactions and Life History in the Maintenance of Gynodioecy in Sidalcea malviflora (Malvaceae)

9701311乌鸦雌性异体交配是指在一个特定物种的种群中雌性和雌雄同体的个体同时出现。关于影响植物育种系统维持的因素一直存在很多争论。本研究的目的是了解不同的生态过程和生长习惯如何在种群中对雌性的维持起到限制或释放的作用。特别是，pi正在研究植物与昆虫的相互作用，包括花粉限制和花食草性如何对雌性和雌雄同体产生不同的影响。此外，我们正在研究种群中雌性和雌雄同体的无性系传播和空间分布如何影响花粉限制。PIs的研究物种是malviflora Sidalcea，这是一种雌蕊异株多年生植物，有2个对比和同域的无性系和无性系亚种。Laciniata和ssp。分别为malviflora)。将采用实地观察、实验操作和基因温室研究相结合的方法来研究上述过程。雌蕊雌蕊通常被认为是雌蕊异构体发育的中间步骤，或在植物物种中完全分离的雄性和雌性个体。因此，研究影响雌雄异株植物群体中雌性维持的因素对于我们更广泛地了解开花植物育种系统的发展至关重要。虽然有许多研究调查了雌同株种群中维持雌性的遗传机制和资源分配方面，但很少有研究关注生态因素或克隆生长在雌性选择中的作用。这项研究具有重要意义，因为它研究了几种相互作用的生态因子的影响，从而使我们能够评估生态和生长形式在维持金莲雌蕊雌蕊中的总体重要性。

9701311 Raven Gynodioecy is the co-occurrence of female and hermaphrodite individuals in a population of a given species. There has been much debate about the factors influencing the maintenance of this breeding system in plants. The aim of this study is to understand how various ecological processes and growth habits may act as constraints or releases on the maintenance of females in populations. In particular, the PIs are looking at how plant-insect interactions including pollen limitation and floral herbivory may differentially affect females and hermaphrodites. In addition, we are studying how clonal spread and the spatial distribution of females and hermaphrodites in a population may affect pollen limitation. The PIs' study species is Sidalcea malviflora, a gynodioecious perennial with 2 contrasting and sympatric clonal and aclonal subspecies (ssp. laciniata and ssp. malviflora, respectively). A combination of field observations, experimental manipulations and genetical greenhouse studies will be used to look at the above processes. Gynodioecy is often considered to be an intermediate step in the development of dioecy, or completely separate male and female individuals within plant species. Because of this, investigation into the factors influencing the maintenance of females in gynodioecious plant populations is crucial to our broader understanding of the development of breeding systems throughout the flowering plants. Though many studies have investigated genetic mechanisms and aspects of resource allocation which act to maintain females in gynodioecious populations, very few studies have looked at the roles of ecological factors or clonal growth in selecting for females. This study is important because it investigates the effects of several interacting ecological factors and will thus enable us to evaluate the overall importance of ecology and growth form in the maintenance of gynodioecy in Sidalcea malviflora.