RPG: The Influence of Clonal Reproduction on Population Sex Ratios in Plants

9726931麦克莱奇许多植物出现在雄性多于雌性的种群中，反之亦然。在一些女性数量超过男性的情况下，观察到有性生殖减少，并将其归因于男性频率较低。这一规划赠款旨在获得基线生态信息，以支持一项完整的建议，以研究1)特定性别克隆(无性)繁殖的原因，以及2)这种繁殖对种群中雄性和雌性数量的影响。Dplasilejeunea Pellucida是一种生长在其他植物活叶上的小型热带植物，将成为重点测试物种。该物种生长在短暂的底物上；因此，个体必须定居、生长和有性繁殖或无性繁殖迅速才能在新的底物上定居。这项研究计划的活动包括：a)收集雄性和雌性植物的人口统计数据(通过监测单个植物)，b)确定有性繁殖减少的原因(通过操纵雄性频率)，c)建立在自然和实验室条件下培养植物的方案，以及d)检测种群中植物的性别特异DNA标记和克隆结构。该项目在三个主要研究领域具有广泛的科学意义：1)无性繁殖对减少种群灭绝的贡献；2)雌雄植物差异的原因和后果；3)无性繁殖与生物体的其他特征(有性繁殖、生长和生存)的关系。在植物的进化研究中，无性繁殖在很大程度上被忽视了，尽管克隆生长对生存有很大的影响。一些克隆植物没有衰老的迹象，使无性繁殖成为一种独特而重要的生态和进化特征。在其他更难研究的植物物种中，在性别比模式和结果S的建模中，获得的关于透明双叶斑潜蝇的信息可能是非常宝贵的。最后，许多研究侧重于有性繁殖、生长和生存的资源分配(能量和营养)。无性繁殖很少被纳入这些研究，但大多数有机体(动物、植物、真菌和其他生物)都能够无性繁殖。这项研究将有助于我们了解无性生殖的资源分配如何影响有性生殖、生长和生存，以及有性生殖、生长和生存是如何影响的。

9726931 McLetchie Many plants occur in populations where males outnumber females or vice versa. In some instances where females outnumber males, reduced sexual reproduction has been observed and attributed to this low male frequency. This planning grant is designed to obtain baseline ecological information that will support a full proposal to study 1) the causes of sex-specific clonal (asexual) reproduction and 2) the effects of this reproduction on the number of males and females in populations. Diplasiolejeunea pellucida, a small tropical plant that grows on living leaves of other plant species will be the focal test species. This species grows on a transient substrate; thus individuals must colonize, grow and sexually or asexually reproduce quickly to colonize new substrate. The activities planned in this study includes: a) collecting demographic data on male and female plants (by monitoring individual plants), b) determining the cause of reduced sexual reproduction (by manipulating male frequency), c) establishing protocols for culturing plants in natural and laboratory conditions, and d) detecting sex-specific DNA markers and clonal structure among plants in the population. This project has broad scientific importance in three main areas of study 1) the contribution of asexual reproduction in reducing population extinction, 2) the causes and consequences of the differences between male and female plants and 3) the relationships of asexual reproduction to other characteristics of the organism (sexual reproduction, growth and survival). Asexual reproduction has been largely ignored in evolutionary studies of plants despite the fact that clonal growth greatly influences survival. Some clonal plants show no sign of aging, making asexual reproduction a distinctive and important ecological and evolutionary trait. Information obtained on Diplasiolejeunea pellucida can be invaluable in modeling sex ratio patterns and consequence s in other plant species that are more difficult to study. Finally, many studies focus on allocation of resources (energy and nutrients) for sexual reproduction, growth and survival. Asexual reproduction is rarely incorporated into these studies yet most organisms (animals, plants, fungi and others) are able to reproduce asexually. This study will contribute to our knowledge of how resource allocation to asexual reproduction affects and is affected by sexual reproduction, growth and survival .