Can Sexual Selection Cause Divergence In Mating System-Related Floral Traits?

Premise of the ResearchThe wide diversity of floral traits seen among plants is shaped by neutral and selective evolutionary processes. In outcrossing species, sexual selection from competing pollen donors is expected to be important for shaping mating system-related traits but empirical evidence is scarce. In a previous evaluation of experimental evolution lines crossed with either one or two pollen donors (monogamous, M, or polyandrous, P, lines) at early floral stages in mixed-mating Collinsia heterophylla (Plantaginaceae), P showed enhanced pollen competitive ability and reduced maternal seed set compared to M, in accordance with sexually antagonistic evolution of pollen. Here, we asked whether the presence of sexual selection during pollen competition affect mating system-related floral traits in the same lines.\n\nMethodologyWe compared flowering start, timing of anther-stigma contact (as an indication of timing of self-pollination), timing of stigma receptivity and first seed set between M and P, and with a source line, S (starting material). The former three traits are later in outcrossers than in selfers of Collinsia. The latter trait was expected to be earlier in P than in M because of sexual selection for early seed siring of pollen.\n\nPivotal ResultsArtificial polyandry for four generations resulted in later flowering start and later anther-stigma contact in P compared to M, and the latter trait was intermediate in S. Thus, P appeared more outcrossing than M. Stigma receptivity did not differ between lines. First seed set was earlier in P than in M, as expected from sexual selection.\n\nConclusionsOur results from C. heterophylla experimental evolution lines suggest that a component of sexual selection during outcross pollination could enhance the patterns of floral divergence commonly found between outcrossers and selfers.