Moritz, Kim
- Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
There are many examples of dioecious plants where either males or females are more severely or frequently attacked by fungal diseases. Species of Salicaceae and Silene are the best-studied examples. In a recent paper (Moritz et al. 2016: Ecol. Evol.), we surveyed studies where fungal infections are plant sex-biased and found evidence for female biases is nine, and male biases in six, out of thirteen plant-pathogen species pairs investigated. We now need to ask which plant and fungus traits are responsible for this bias. Possible candidates include plant size, chemical or structural defences in plant tissues, indirect defences (e.g., competition for leaf surface space between pathogens and non-pathogenic organisms) and the type of plant tissue that the fungus infects.
Published in
Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift
2016, volume: 110, number: 6, pages: 388-389
SLU Authors
Björkman, Christer
- Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Stenberg, Johan A.
- Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
UKÄ Subject classification
Evolutionary Biology
Ecology
Botany
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/78307