Review article - Peer-reviewed, 2015
Using theories of sexual selection and sexual conflict to improve our understanding of plant ecology and evolution
Lankinen, Åsa; Karlsson Green, KristinaAbstract
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.Keywords
Mating-system evolution; plant immunity; pollen competition; pollen-pistil interaction; sexual conflict; sexual selectionPublished in
AoB PLANTS2015, volume: 7, article number: plv008
Publisher: OXFORD UNIV PRESS
Authors' information
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Plant Protection Biology
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Plant Protection Biology
UKÄ Subject classification
Evolutionary Biology
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plv008
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/68846