The realized effect of postpollination sexual selection in a natural plant population

The ultimate importance of postpollination sexual selection has remained elusive, largely because of the difficulty of assigning paternity in the field. Here I use a powerful new molecular marker (AFLP) for paternity analysis in a natural population of the outcrossing angiosperm Persoonia mollis (Proteaceae) to assess male reproductive success following equal pollination of 15 pollen donors on each of 6310 pistils. These results were contrasted with male reproductive success of these same plants following natural mating. Following equal pollination, there was a significant departure from equal siring success, indicating a potential for postpollination sexual selection. The most successful pollen donor sired more than twice the expected number of seeds, and this was largely consistent across recipient plants. However, siring success following natural mating was significantly different from siring success following artificial pollination and showed that the reproductive gains to be made from superior pollen performance did not translate into increased reproductive success following natural mating. As the ecological context for post-pollination sexual selection is strong in P. mollis, I suggest that pollen competition may ultimately have only a weak effect on non-random male mating success under natural conditions because the realized opportunities for pollen competition within pistils are limited.