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Selection on floral and carbon uptake traits of Lobelia siphilitica is similar in females and hermaphrodites
Author(s) -
CARUSO C. M.,
YAKOBOWSKI S. J.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of evolutionary biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.289
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1420-9101
pISSN - 1010-061X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2008.01610.x
Subject(s) - biology , gynodioecy , sexual dimorphism , hermaphrodite , trait , selection (genetic algorithm) , natural selection , pollen , directional selection , sexual selection , dioecy , disruptive selection , stabilizing selection , evolutionary biology , zoology , botany , artificial intelligence , computer science , programming language
Sexual dimorphism is common in plants and animals. Although this dimorphism is often assumed to be adaptive, natural selection has rarely been measured on sexually dimorphic traits of plants. We measured phenotypic selection via seed set on two floral and four carbon uptake traits of female and hermaphrodite Lobelia siphilitica . Because females can reproduce only via seeds, which are costlier than pollen, we predicted that females with smaller flowers and enhanced carbon uptake would have higher fitness, resulting in either sex morph‐specific directional selection or stabilizing selection for different optimal trait values in females and hermaphrodites. We found that directional selection on one carbon uptake trait differed between females and hermaphrodites. We did not detect significant stabilizing selection on traits of either sex morph. Our results provide little support for the hypothesis that sexual dimorphism in gynodioecious plants evolved in response to sex morph‐specific selection.