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Is there 'anther-anther interference' within a flower? Evidences from one-by-one stamen movement in an insect-pollinated plant.

ABSTRACT: The selective pressure imposed by maximizing male fitness (pollen dispersal) in shaping floral structures is increasingly recognized and emphasized in current plant sciences. To maximize male fitness, many flowers bear a group of stamens with temporally separated anther dehiscence that prolongs presentation of pollen grains. Such an advantage, however, may come with a cost resulting from interference of pollen removal by the dehisced anthers. This interference between dehisced and dehiscing anthers has received little attention and few experimental tests to date. Here, using one-by-one stamen movement in the generalist-pollinated Parnassia palustris, we test this hypothesis by manipulation experiments in two years. Under natural conditions, the five fertile stamens in P. palustris flowers elongate their filaments individually, and anthers dehisce successively one-by-one. More importantly, the anther-dehisced stamen bends out of the floral center by filament deflexion before the next stamen's anther dehiscence. Experimental manipulations show that flowers with dehisced anther remaining at the floral center experience shorter (1/3-1/2 less) visit durations by pollen-collecting insects (mainly hoverflies and wasps) because these 'hungry' insects are discouraged by the scant and non-fresh pollen in the dehisced anther. Furthermore, the dehisced anther blocks the dehiscing anther's access to floral visitors, resulting in a nearly one third decrease in their contact frequency. As a result, pollen removal of the dehiscing anther decreases dramatically. These results provide the first direct experimental evidence that anther-anther interference is possible in a flower, and that the selection to reduce such interferences can be a strong force in floral evolution. We also propose that some other floral traits, usually interpreted as pollen dispensing mechanisms, may function, at least partially, as mechanisms to promote pollen dispersal by reducing interferences between dehisced and dehiscing anthers.

SUBMITTER: Ren MX

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3903572 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Is there 'anther-anther interference' within a flower? Evidences from one-by-one stamen movement in an insect-pollinated plant.

Ren Ming-Xun MX Bu Zhao-Jun ZJ

PloS one 20140127 1

The selective pressure imposed by maximizing male fitness (pollen dispersal) in shaping floral structures is increasingly recognized and emphasized in current plant sciences. To maximize male fitness, many flowers bear a group of stamens with temporally separated anther dehiscence that prolongs presentation of pollen grains. Such an advantage, however, may come with a cost resulting from interference of pollen removal by the dehisced anthers. This interference between dehisced and dehiscing anth ...[more]

PMID: 24475150

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Project description:Successive stamen movement directly controls pollen presentation schedules through sequential stamen maturation and changes the extent of herkogamy by altering the positions of sexual organs. However, the implications of such movements in terms of pollination are not well understood. Pollen presentation theory predicts that staggered pollen presentation should be favoured when plants are subject to diminishing returns on pollen transfer. Herkogamy on the other hand, has been interpreted as an adaptive trait that reduces sexual interference in hermaphrodite flowers. In this study, we conducted floral manipulations to determine the function of successive stamen movement in pollen transfer. By artificially manipulating the flowers to present two anthers simultaneously in the floral centre, we attempted to investigate whether changes in the anther presentation strategy affect pollen removal, deposition and the efficiency of pollinators. Compared with the natural treatment, the pollen transfer efficiency of halictid bees decreased significantly when the flowers were manipulated to present two anthers simultaneously. Although the presentation of two anthers simultaneously led to a similar pollen removal rate, there was a significant reduction in pollen deposition on neighbouring stigmas. To evaluate the effect of movement herkogamy on pollen export and deposition and seed set, the flowers were manipulated with or without the movement of stamen bending out from the floral centre. Pollen export decreased significantly when the central anther was moved away from the pistil, and pollen deposition and seed set declined significantly when the five spent anthers were retained on the pistil. Our study provides good support for the pollen presentation theory and provides direct experimental evidence that successive stamen movement could increase pollen transfer efficiency by sequential stamen maturation. Moreover, movement herkogamy promotes pollen export, deposition and seed set, and could therefore be regarded as an effective mechanism to reduce interference between male and female functions.

Dataset Information

Is there 'anther-anther interference' within a flower? Evidences from one-by-one stamen movement in an insect-pollinated plant.

Publications

Is there 'anther-anther interference' within a flower? Evidences from one-by-one stamen movement in an insect-pollinated plant.

Similar Datasets

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