Experimental Manipulation of Ecological Factors Influencing Mating Patterns in Mimulus ringens

在许多开花植物物种中，异交和遗传扩散的速率在一系列空间尺度上都有明显的差异。研究人员经常将这种变化归因于影响传粉者运动的生态因素。然而，人们对这些变量如何影响个体植物的交配系统知之甚少。这项拟议的研究调查了种群密度对林蛙亲子关系模式的影响。这种原生多年生植物很容易被克隆，便于建立具有不同遗传差异的个体的复制种群。每个实验种群中的所有植物都将具有独特的酶表型，从而允许将父子关系分配给所有采样的后代。对传粉者运动、开花物候和种子产量的研究将与详细的父子关系数据相结合，以检验来自生态和进化理论的一系列预测。此外，这项研究将提供异交率、基因扩散和雄性育性的个体变异的异常详细的描述，并将记录生态因素对观察到的模式的影响。

In many species of flowering plants, rates of outcrossing and gen dispersal vary markedly across a range of spatial scales. Researchers have often attributed this variation to ecological factors that influence pollinator movements. However, very little is known about the ways in which these variables affect the mating system of individual plants. The proposed research investigates the influence of population density on patterns of paternity in Mimulus ringens. This native perennial is readily cloned, facilitating the establishment of replicate populations of genetically distinct individuals. All plants in each experimental population will have unique enzyme phenotypes, permitting assignment of paternity to all sampled offspring. Studies of pollinator movements, flowering phenology, and seed yield will be combined with detailed paternity data to test a series of predictions derived from ecological and evolutionary theory. In addition, this study will provide an exceptionally detailed description of individual variation in outcrossing rates, gene dispersal, and male fertility and will document the influence of ecological factors on the patterns observed.