The evolution of plant reproduction: what have we missed so far?

When we look at the history of science, plant sex was discovered quite recently. This means that compared to animals, we know much less about what drives the evolution of plant sexual traits. One of the well-known drivers in animals is sexual selection, and only a few decades ago, the idea that sexual selection exists in plants too was proposed. Our team is testing whether sexual selection plays an important role in plant reproduction evolution and in plant speciation, and in parallel, we are searching for the genes involved in sexual selection. In the talk, I will present some of our results in this matter, and will connect them to another important part of plant reproduction evolution, hybridization barriers.

Recent papers:

İltaş O, Svitok M, Cornille A, Schmickl R, Lafon Placette C (2021). Early evolution of reproductive isolation: a case of weak inbreeder/strong outbreeder leads to an intraspecific hybridization barrier in Arabidopsis lyrata. Evolution, doi: 10.1111/evo.14240.

Morgan EJ, Čertner M, Lučanová M, Deniz U, Kubíková K, Venon A, Kovářík O, Lafon Placette C, Kolář F (2021). Disentangling the components of triploid block and its fitness consequences in natural diploid-tetraploid contact zones of Arabidopsis arenosa. New Phytol, doi: 10.1111/nph.17357.

Lafon Placette C (2020). Endosperm genome dosage, hybrid seed failure and parental imprinting: sexual selection as an alternative to parental conflict. Am J Bot 107(1): 1–3 (invited article).