Sexual selection and sexual conflict in plants

Posted by Anna Nordén 

SEM image of pollen grains.

For the next lab meeting (Feb 24^th) I thought we could focus on plants for a change. I suggest that we discuss a new review article by Åsa Lankinen and former lab member Kristina Karlsson Green, about sexual selection and sexual conflict in plants. Theories of sexual selection and sexual conflict have been extensively studied in animals (especially insects), and the authors wish to incorporate some of these theories to plant research. In the end, they also suggest three plant research fields where these theories could be helpful. I hope that we will all learn something new and broaden our perspectives a bit!

Time and place as usual (10:30 in Argumentet, ekologihuset 2^nd floor). I will provide fika.

 

Title: Using theories of sexual selection and sexual conflict to improve our understanding of plant ecology and evolution

Authors: Åsa Lankinen and Kristina Karlsson Green

Abstract: Today it is accepted that the theories of sexual selection and sexual conflict are general and can be applied to both animals and plants. However, potentially due to a controversial history, plant studies investigating sexual selection and sexual conflict are relatively rare. Moreover, these theories and concepts are seldom implemented in research fields investigating related aspects of plant ecology and evolution. Even though these theories are complex, and can be difficult to study, we suggest that several fields in plant biology would benefit from incorporating and testing the impact of selection pressures generated by sexual selection and sexual conflict. Here we give examples of three fields where we believe such incorporation would be particularly fruitful, including i) mechanisms of pollen-pistil interactions, ii) mating-system evolution in hermaphrodites and iii) plant immune responses to pests and pathogens.