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Whole-mount Clearing and Staining of Arabidopsis Flower Organs and Siliques

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Comparative evolution of flower and fruit morphology.

Kenneth D Whitney¹

¹Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005, USA. kwhitney@rice.edu

Proceedings. Biological Sciences

|May 29, 2009

Summary

Angiosperm flowers show greater morphological diversity than fruits, suggesting stronger evolutionary selection on floral traits due to animal pollination. This pattern holds across different plant communities.

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary Biology
Plant Morphology
Ecology

Background:

Angiosperm diversification has led to diverse plant forms.
The evolutionary paths of flowers and fruits may differ due to distinct selective pressures from animal interactions.
Animal pollination and dispersal mutualisms are key drivers of angiosperm evolution.

Purpose of the Study:

To test the hypothesis that animal-pollinated flowers experience stronger selective pressures, leading to greater morphological diversification than animal-dispersed fruits.
To compare the morphological divergence of flowers and fruits across different floras.

Main Methods:

Analyzed size and color traits for 472 species across three distinct floras (St. John, Hawaii, Great Plains).
Employed phylogenetically controlled analyses of nearest-neighbor distances in multidimensional trait space.
Examined species cluster spacing in floral versus fruit trait space for the St. John flora.

Main Results:

Flowers exhibited greater morphological divergence than fruits in all three studied floras.
Species clusters in floral trait space were more divergent than those in fruit trait space for the St. John flora.
Phylogenetically controlled analyses supported the hypothesis of differential diversification rates between flowers and fruits.

Conclusions:

Stronger selection for divergent floral morphology, driven by animal pollination, appears to be a significant factor in angiosperm diversification.
While animal interactions are crucial, genetic, physiological, and ecological constraints may also influence diversification patterns.
The study highlights differing evolutionary dynamics between reproductive structures involved in pollination and dispersal.