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Fruit abortion, developmental selection and developmental stability in Quercus ilex.

Mario Díaz¹, Anders P Møller, Fernando J Pulido

¹Departamento de Ciencias Ambientales, Facultad de Ciencias del Medio Ambiente, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 45071, Toledo, Spain. mariod@amb-to.uclm.es

|May 2, 2003

Summary

Stressed oak trees selectively abort less viable acorns, indicated by higher asymmetry. This developmental selection ensures offspring with more stable phenotypes, improving survival rates.

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Area of Science:

Plant reproductive biology
Developmental stability in plants

Background:

Fruit abortion is a parental strategy to eliminate low-viability propagules.
Aborted zygotes may exhibit developmental deviations, leading to developmentally stable survivors.

Purpose of the Study:

To test the hypothesis that fruit abortion is a mechanism for selective removal of developmentally unstable propagules.
To investigate the relationship between developmental instability and reproductive success in holm oaks (Quercus ilex).

Main Methods:

Assessed leaf fluctuating asymmetry in holm oak trees and its relation to tree fecundity.
Quantified acorn asymmetry in both aborted and mature fruits.
Examined the effect of acorn asymmetry on seedling traits and survival.

Main Results:

Tree fecundity negatively correlated with leaf asymmetry; abortion rates positively correlated with leaf asymmetry.
Aborted acorns showed significantly higher asymmetry (83-99%) than mature acorns (57-78%).
Acorn asymmetry influenced the trade-off between leaf number and size in seedlings, and affected early seedling mortality.

Conclusions:

Findings support the hypothesis that trees selectively abort propagules with low viability, indicated by developmental instability.
Developmental selection acts on fruit instability, favoring more stable offspring phenotypes.