The ecology and evolution of plant reproductive strategies

植物繁殖策略影响基因传递、种群统计和进化多样化的净速率。了解这些策略的进化和生态，是理解达尔文“令人憎恶的奥秘”的关键--开花植物的迅速多样化和崛起为优势。这项建议的短期目标是发展我们对植物克隆和性别空间分离的生态学和进化的理解。这两个主题在其概念基础上没有实质性的发展而停滞不前。我们对植物无性系的理解尤其需要修订；克隆植物广泛存在，而且往往在生态上占主导地位，但对克隆的生态代价和收益的研究远远落后于其他繁殖模式。对于性别的空间隔离(即种群内雌雄之间的隔离；植物性别分离的一个普遍特征)，还没有关于隔离如何影响生殖适合性的理论和实验。这里提出的研究旨在通过发展新的理论并通过严格的野外实验结合分子遗传学技术对这一理论进行测试来重新定位我们对这些概念的理解。我们问：(I)与普遍持有的观点相反，与非克隆植物相比，克隆能否促进生殖健康？以及(Ii)空间隔离是否对生殖适合度有负面影响，以及这些后果对女性和男性是否相等？在回答这些问题时，我们还将进行一些核心进化理论的首批直接测试。综上所述，这项建议旨在改变我们对植物无性系和雌雄分离的理解，并促进对基本但很少经过检验的生物学概念的了解。这些短期目标直接有助于实验室的长期目标，即了解调控植物繁殖策略的进化转变的生态过程，从而揭示调控开花植物多样性的过程。

Plant reproductive strategies influence gene transmission, population demography, and net rates of evolutionary diversification. Understanding the evolution and ecology of these strategies is key to understanding Darwin's 'abominable mystery' - the rapid diversification and rise to dominance of the flowering plants. The short-term goals of this proposal are to develop our understanding of the ecology and evolution of plant clonality and spatial segregation of the sexes. These two topics have languished without substantive developments in their conceptual underpinnings. Our understanding of plant clonality in particular needs revision; clonal plants are widespread and often ecologically dominant but studies of the ecological costs and benefits of clonality lag far behind that of other reproductive modes. For spatial segregation of the sexes (i.e., segregation between females and males within populations; a widespread feature of plants with separate sexes) there has been no theory and very little experimentation on how segregation affects reproductive fitness. The research proposed here aims to reset our understanding of these concepts via development of new theory and via tests of this theory using rigorous field experimentation in combination with molecular-genetic techniques. We ask: (i) can clonality promote reproductive fitness in comparison with non-clonal plants, contrary to widely-held views? and (ii) does spatial segregation have negative consequences for reproductive fitness, and are these consequences equal for females vs. males? In answering these questions, we will also be conducting some of the first direct tests of core evolutionary theory. Taken together, this proposal aims to transform our understanding of plant clonality and the segregation of female and male plants and to advance knowledge of fundamental, but rarely tested biological concepts. These short-term objectives contribute directly to the lab's long term goal of understanding the ecological processes regulating evolutionary transitions in plant reproductive strategy and thereby revealing processes that regulate flowering plant diversity.