Paternal effects on seed mass in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Who is in control of seed size, and do some fathers sire bigger seeds than others? We used isogenic male-sterile genotypes of the Arabidopsis thaliana accessions Col and Ler. By fertilising flowers side-by-side with either pollen from the same accession ('self-pollination') or pollen from another accession (outcrossing), we compared, on the same mother plant, seed set of flowers that were very similar in resource status. Some paternal genotypes had a significant effect on seed mass, with the most extreme father siring seeds 15.3% heavier than seeds resulting from 'self-pollination'. There was no correlation between seed mass of paternal parents and the seeds they sired. We discuss the evolution of seed size as a tug-of-war between parent and offspring.
Ecology and Phytochemistry, Institute of Biology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands. t.j.de.jong@biology.leidenuniv.nl
T J
TJ
de Jong
C M
CM
Hermans
K C A M
KC
van der Veen-van Wijk
D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D018533:Biomass; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D035264:Flowers; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000502:physiology*; D005838:Genotype; D011058:Pollen; D054817:Pollination; D012639:Seeds / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*