Inbreeding alters a plant-predispersal seed predator interaction

Abstract

The effect of inbreeding on genetic diversity is expected to decrease plant defences or vigour-related traits that, in turn, can modify the pattern of attack by herbivores. The selective damage caused by herbivores can produce variable fitness costs between inbred and outcrossed progenies influencing the evolution of a species’ plant mating system. By exposing inbred and outcrossed plants to natural conditions of seed predation, we assessed whether inbreeding increases weevil incidence and infestation, and how weevil seed predation affects the fitness of inbred and outcrossed progeny. To test if inbreeding affected the host’s plant quality, we weighed the biomass of weevils developed in inbred and outcrossed progenies. An additional experiment was carried out to examine whether weevils preferentially attack vigorous plants regardless from the level of inbreeding. The average value of leaf size was 21% larger in outcrossed plants than in inbred plants. Likewise, weevil incidence and infestation were 13 and 40%, respectively, higher on outcrossed plants relative to their inbred counterparts. However, the relative impact of seed predation was significantly lower in outcrossed progeny than in inbred progeny. In contrast, inbreeding did not alter host plant quality and weevils developed in inbred and outcrossed plants had a similar biomass. Variations in fruit number were consistently associated with the infestation level in both experiments, whereas leaf size only predicted the number of weevils in one experiment, suggesting that fruit number is the most influential vigour-related characteristic of a weevil attack. These findings indicate that the costs of inbreeding of the interaction D. stramonium-T. soror were higher for inbred plants than for outcrossed plants. The interaction between seed predation and inbreeding depression could prevent the fixation of selfing as a unique reproductive strategy in D. stramonium.