Du Zhi-Yuan, Wang Qing-Feng
Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.
PLoS One. 2014 Dec 19;9(12):e115653. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115653. eCollection 2014.
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.
水生植物在被子植物系统发育中分布广泛。水生被子植物的生殖及其他生活史特征与特定的生长形式密切相关。水媒传粉在被子植物生殖结构中展现出显著的趋同进化实例，而水生植物在性系统方面具有极大的多样性。在本研究中，我们基于水生被子植物的系统发育重建了水生谱系的祖先特征。我们的目的是找出水生被子植物中生活型、传粉方式和性系统之间的相关性。水媒传粉是完全沉水被子植物对水生栖息地的适应性进化。水自花传粉和雄花 - 水媒传粉是从风媒传粉和虫媒传粉向水媒传粉的过渡阶段。真正的水媒传粉发生在18个沉水被子植物属中，这与单性花的异常高发生率相关。所有海洋被子植物都是沉水的水媒传粉物种。本研究将有助于我们理解水媒传粉的进化及其与生活型和性系统的相关性。
