AN ECOLOGICAL GENETIC STUDY OF GYNODIOECY IN LIMNANTHES DOUGLASII (LIMNANTHACEAE)

Abstract

Gynodioecy in two populations of Limnanthes douglasii var. rosea was studied for its maintenance requirements, role in population structure and its influence on the levels of outbreeding. The mode of inheritance of male sterility appeared to be nucleo‐cytoplasmic, although the precise number of nuclear genes and dominance relationships could not be ascertained. Measurements on the plants sampled from natural stands and controlled experiments showed that male‐steriles and their progeny had greater biomass and more flowers per plant than hermaphrodites, though these results varied with the environmental conditions. The hermaphrodites of gynodioecious populations had higher rates of selfing than the hermaphrodite individuals in populations lacking male sterility. Estimates of the inbreeding depression and homozygosity levels were also higher in gynodioecious populations. Variation in these parameters of breeding system and relative heterozygosis among populations may explain why male sterility has a restricted distribution, as theoretical models also predict rather specific conditions for this stable polymorphism. These data suggest that the advantage of male sterility is associated with lowered inbreeding depression. However, the potential ecological resource reallocation to the female function needs to be investigated. The fitness differences observed in this study between male‐steriles and hermaphrodites appear inadequate to maintain the nucleo‐cytoplasmic male sterility but could account for the observed frequencies (10–20%) of male‐steriles in nature if the genetic system has evolved from a cytoplasmic system.