Correlations of life form, pollination mode and sexual system in aquatic angiosperms

PLoS One. 2014 Dec 19;9(12):e115653. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115653. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Aquatic plants are phylogenetically well dispersed across the angiosperms. Reproductive and other life-history traits of aquatic angiosperms are closely associated with specific growth forms. Hydrophilous pollination exhibits notable examples of convergent evolution in angiosperm reproductive structures, and hydrophiles exhibit great diversity in sexual system. In this study, we reconstructed ancestral characters of aquatic lineages based on the phylogeny of aquatic angiosperms. Our aim is to find the correlations of life form, pollination mode and sexual system in aquatic angiosperms. Hydrophily is the adaptive evolution of completely submersed angiosperms to aquatic habitats. Hydroautogamy and maleflower-ephydrophily are the transitional stages from anemophily and entomophily to hydrophily. True hydrophily occurs in 18 submersed angiosperm genera, which is associated with an unusually high incidence of unisexual flowers. All marine angiosperms are submersed, hydrophilous species. This study would help us understand the evolution of hydrophilous pollination and its correlations with life form and sexual system.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aquatic Organisms
  • Biological Evolution
  • Chloroplasts / genetics
  • Magnoliopsida / classification*
  • Magnoliopsida / genetics
  • Magnoliopsida / physiology*
  • Phylogeny
  • Pollination*
  • Reproduction

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31100175) to ZYD and the strategic pilot science and technology projects of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDAO5090305) to QFW. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.