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。理解这些策略的进化和生态学是理解达尔文的“令人憎恶的奥秘”的关键--开花植物的迅速多样化和优势地位的上升。这项建议的短期目标是发展我们对植物克隆性和性别空间分离的生态学和进化的理解。这两个专题在其概念基础方面没有实质性发展而受到冷落。我们对植物克隆性的理解尤其需要修正;克隆植物分布广泛，往往在生态上占主导地位，但对克隆性的生态成本和效益的研究远远落后于其他生殖模式。对于性别的空间隔离（即，种群内雌性和雄性之间的隔离;具有不同性别的植物的普遍特征）关于隔离如何影响生殖适合度，目前还没有理论，也很少有实验。这里提出的研究旨在通过发展新的理论，并通过使用严格的现场实验结合分子遗传技术来测试该理论，从而重置我们对这些概念的理解。我们问：（一）克隆性可以促进生殖适合度与非克隆植物相比，相反，广泛持有的观点？以及（ii）空间隔离是否对生殖适合度产生负面影响，这些影响对女性和男性是否相同？为了回答这些问题，我们也将对核心进化理论进行一些首次直接测试。总的来说，这项建议旨在改变我们对植物克隆性和雌性和雄性植物分离的理解，并推进基本但很少测试的生物学概念的知识。这些短期目标直接有助于实验室的长期目标，即了解调节植物生殖策略进化过渡的生态过程，从而揭示调节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.