Paternal parents enhance dispersal ability of their progeny in awind-dispersed species, Tecoma stans L.

摘要

In plants, as in animals, the participation of the maternal and paternal parent in reproduction is skewed with the maternal parent bearing a relatively larger investment cost. Under this scenario, it has been shown that the maternal and paternal parent would be in conflict with each other over the extent of resource allocation to their offspring. While the maternal parent would be selected to favour an optimal allocation of resources such that the marginal returns to her is maximized, the paternal parent would be selected to demand the maximum possible investments for their offspring. Uma Shaanker et al. showed that such conflicts could potentially occur over a range of issues such as provision of resources in seed, number of seeds developing within a fruit (brood size), time of release from seed dormancy and seed and fruit dispersal. The conflict itself might be manifested proximately by the paternal parent by manipulating traits in the offspring. While paternal manipulation of offspring behaviour is well documented in animal systems, that in plants is poorly documented. In this paper, we demonstrate the role of paternal parents in influencing the dispersal ability of their progeny in a wind-dispersed species, Tecoma starts L. We argue that the manipulation of off-spring features is a manifestation of the conflict between the maternal and paternal parent over the dispersal efficiency of offspring. While maternal parent would seek to optimize the resource allocation to dispersal structures, the paternal parent would seek to increase the investments such that the fitness accrued through increased dispersal distance is maximized.