Stylish lengths: Mate choice in flowers.
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Date
2011-06
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Abstract
The styles of flowers may represent an arena for pollen competition in the race to fertilize ovules. Accordingly,
selection should favour a longer ‘race’ to better discriminate among variable pollen by increasing style length.
Sampling across a taxonomically diverse range of wild and outcrossed species, we found that the distribution of style
lengths within plants were skewed towards longer styles, as predicted. In self-pollinated domesticated species, where
discrimination among pollen is less important, we found no such pattern. We conclude that style length is under
directional selection towards longer styles as a mechanism for mate choice among pollen of variable quality.
Description
Keywords
Flowers, mate choice, outcrossed, skewness, style lengths
Citation
Ramesha BT, Yetish MD, Ravikanth G, Ganeshaiah KN, Ghazoul Jaboury, Shaanker R Uma. Stylish lengths: Mate choice in flowers. Journal of Biosciences. 2011 Jun; 36(2): 229-234.