Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2010 Jan 12;365(1537):99-109. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0199.
Flowering plants display spectacular floral diversity and a bewildering array of reproductive adaptations that promote mating, particularly outbreeding. A striking feature of this diversity is that related species often differ in pollination and mating systems, and intraspecific variation in sexual traits is not unusual, especially among herbaceous plants. This variation provides opportunities for evolutionary biologists to link micro-evolutionary processes to the macro-evolutionary patterns that are evident within lineages. Here, I provide some personal reflections on recent progress in our understanding of the ecology and evolution of plant reproductive diversity. I begin with a brief historical sketch of the major developments in this field and then focus on three of the most significant evolutionary transitions in the reproductive biology of flowering plants: the pathway from outcrossing to predominant self-fertilization, the origin of separate sexes (females and males) from hermaphroditism and the shift from animal pollination to wind pollination. For each evolutionary transition, I consider what we have discovered and some of the problems that still remain unsolved. I conclude by discussing how new approaches might influence future research in plant reproductive biology.
开花植物表现出壮观的花卉多样性和令人眼花缭乱的生殖适应性，这些适应性促进了交配，特别是异花授粉。这种多样性的一个显著特点是，相关物种的授粉和交配系统往往不同，种内的性特征也不常见，尤其是在草本植物中。这种变异为进化生物学家提供了机会，将微观进化过程与谱系内明显的宏观进化模式联系起来。在这里，我对我们最近在理解植物生殖多样性的生态学和进化方面的进展进行了一些个人反思。我首先简要回顾了该领域的主要发展，然后重点介绍了开花植物生殖生物学中三个最重要的进化转变：从异花授粉到主要自交的途径，从雌雄同体到雌雄异体的起源，以及从动物授粉到风授粉的转变。对于每一个进化转变，我都考虑了我们已经发现的和一些仍然没有解决的问题。最后，我讨论了新方法如何影响植物生殖生物学的未来研究。
