Architectural effects regulate resource allocation within the inflorescences with nonlinear blooming patterns

作者：Hao Wang, Zhiqiang Zhang, Bo Zhang, Liping Wang, Wen Guo, Ye Fang, Qingjun Li · 发表于：American Journal of Botany · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1002/ajb2.16001 · 被引用次数：11 · 研究领域：Plant and animal studies、Plant Reproductive Biology、Plant Molecular Biology Research

PREMISE: Spatial and temporal resource allocations within inflorescences have been well-studied in many plants based on flowering sequence or floral position. However, there had been few attempts to investigate architectural effects and resource competition in species where the blooming pattern does not follow a linear positional pattern within the inflorescence. Moreover, most flowering plants show female-biased sex allocation in early or basal flowers, but it is unclear in species with inherent and changeless ovule production. METHODS: We investigated intra-inflorescence variation in reproductive traits of Salvia przewalskii, a perennial herb with 4-ouvle ovary flowers and flowering sequence-floral position decoupled inflorescences. To detect the effects of resource competition and architectural effects on reproductive success, we manipulated inflorescence (removed floral buds by position and flowering sequence) and pollination (opened and supplemented pollination). RESULTS: Pollen production and dry mass deceased from bottom to top flowers but did not significantly differ following flowering sequence, resulting in male-biased sex allocation in basal flowers. The seed production, fruit set, and bud development exhibited significant declining trends from proximal to distal positions regardless of the thinning and pollen treatments. Meanwhile, the seed production, fruit set, and bud development success did not significant differ when thinning was conducted according to flower...