Sex-specific outbreeding advantages and sexual dimorphism in the seedlings of dioecious trees.

Publisher: Wiley Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0370467 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1537-2197 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00029122 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Am J Bot Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: <2018-> : [Philadelphia, PA] : Wiley
Original Publication: Baltimore Md : Botanical Society Of America

Trees* ; Seedlings*; Animals ; Ecosystem ; Sex Characteristics ; Plant Leaves

Premise: Dioecious trees are important components of many forest ecosystems. Outbreeding advantage and sexual dimorphism are two major mechanisms that explain the persistence of dioecious plants; however, they have rarely been studied in dioecious trees.
Methods: We investigated the influence of sex and genetic distance between parental trees (GDPT) on the growth and functional traits of multiple seedlings of a dioecious tree, Diospyros morrisiana.
Results: We found significant positive relationships between GDPT and seedling sizes and tissue density. However, the positive outbreeding effects on seedling growth mainly manifested in female seedlings, but were not prominent in males. Among seedlings, the male ones generally had higher biomass and leaf area than female seedlings, but such differences diminished as GDPT increased.
Conclusions: Our research highlights that outbreeding advantage in plants can be sex-specific and that sexual dimorphism begins from the seedling stage of dioecious trees.
(© 2023 Botanical Society of America.)

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Keywords: dioecious plants; genetic distance; outbreeding advantage; seedling; sex; sexual dimorphism

Date Created: 20230311 Date Completed: 20230501 Latest Revision: 20230509

20230512

10.1002/ajb2.16153

36905311