J Integr Plant Biol. ›› 2017, Vol. 59 ›› Issue (12): 881-894.DOI: 10.1111/jipb.12598
• Molecular Ecology and Evolution • Previous Articles Next Articles
Jenny Y. Y. Lau, Chun-Chiu Pang, Lawrence Ramsden and Richard M.K. Saunders*
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Although “dry-type” stigmas are widely regarded as ancestral in angiosperms, the early-divergent family Annonaceae has copious stigmatic exudate. We evaluate three putative functions for this exudate: as a nutritive reward for pollinators; as a pollen germination medium; and as an extragynoecial compitum that enables pollen tube growth between carpels. Stigmatic exudate is fructose dominated (72.2%), but with high levels of glucose and sucrose; the dominance of hexose sugars and the diversity of amino acids observed, including many that are essential for insects, support a nutritive role for pollinators. Sugar concentration in pre-receptive flowers is high (28.2%), falling during the peak period of stigmatic receptivity (17.4%), and then rising again toward the end of the pistillate phase (32.9%). Pollen germination was highest in sugar concentrations <20%. Sugar concentrations during the peak pistillate phase therefore provide optimal osmolarity for pollen hydration and germination; subsequent changes in sugar concentration during anthesis reinforce protogyny (in which carpels mature before stamens), enabling the retention of concentrated exudate into the staminate phase as a pollinator food reward without the possibility of pollen germination. Intercarpellary growth of pollen tubes was confirmed: the exudate therefore also functions as a suprastylar extragynoecial compitum, overcoming the limitations of apocarpy.
Jenny Y. Y. Lau, Chun-Chiu Pang, Lawrence Ramsden and Richard M.K. Saunders. Stigmatic exudate in the Annonaceae: Pollinator reward, pollen germination medium or extragynoecial compitum?[J]. J Integr Plant Biol., 2017, 59(12): 881-894.
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URL: https://www.jipb.net/EN/10.1111/jipb.12598
https://www.jipb.net/EN/Y2017/V59/I12/881