Does differential seed siring success change over time or with pollination history in wild radish, Raphanus sativus...

Previous work with wild radish has shown that pollen donors sire different numbers of seeds and that the condition of the maternal tissue affects seed paternity, suggesting that both pollen donor characteristics and maternal tissue affect mating. However, because these results are from the greenhouse, it is difficult to know whether they would hold true in the field. Here, we performed hundreds of crosses on several maternal plants to simulate changes during the flowering season of field plants. During the experiment, maternal resource availability changed due to the costs of producing fruits, and we determined the pollination history of a plant by performing crosses in specific orders. Examination of seed paternity showed that there were small differences in pollen donor success at the beginning of the experiment when maternal resources were abundant. Differential pollen donor success was greatest slightly later in the flowering period, but declined toward the end of the experiment. Thus, maternal plants may distinguish most among pollen donors when they have both abundant resources and experience with the differences in quality of available pollen donors. In contrast, there were few significant effects of the recent pollination history of plants on pollen donor success. Finally, despite the changes in mating performance over time, there were strong overall differences in pollen donor success, suggesting that seasonal changes in the field will not eliminate the potential for nonrandom mating.