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Why did heterospory evolve?

Kurt B Petersen1, Martin Burd1

  • 1School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia.

Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
|October 13, 2016
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

The evolution of heterospory, or different-sized spores, in land plants is explained by resource allocation and mating dynamics. This innovation, crucial for plant evolution, occurred repeatedly and is analogous to anisogamy.

Keywords:
anisogamyendosporyevolutiongametophytehomosporyland plantslycophytesseed habitsporophytewater ferns

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Plant Science
  • Paleobotany

Background:

  • The primitive land plant life cycle featured homospory (unimodal spore size).
  • Heterospory (bimodal spore size: small male, large female) evolved repeatedly in land plants.
  • The adaptive value of heterospory remains poorly understood, despite its evolutionary significance.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the selective forces driving the evolution of heterospory from homospory.
  • To propose and evaluate novel hypotheses for the adaptive advantage of heterospory.
  • To re-establish research focus on this critical transition in land plant evolution.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing literature on heterospory and related evolutionary concepts.
  • Application of optimal resource allocation models to spore size evolution.
  • Drawing analogies between heterospory and anisogamy, incorporating mate-encounter dynamics.

Main Results:

  • Optimal resource allocation models suggest that increased spore size can favor smaller spores under competitive conditions, leading to microspores and frequency-dependent selection for megaspores.
  • This model accounts for heterospory's appearance in the Devonian period with complex vegetation.
  • Analogies with anisogamy suggest that dispersal and mating dynamics may have driven spore size differentiation.

Conclusions:

  • Heterospory likely evolved due to selective pressures related to resource allocation and mating dynamics, similar to anisogamy.
  • These hypotheses offer testable predictions consistent with current data.
  • Further empirical investigation is needed to fully understand the evolution of heterospory.