ReviewProceedings. Biological sciences2013
The evolution of plant reproductive systems: how often are transitions irreversible?
Review in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers.
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Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed.
- Haplotype-resolved genome assembly of a male Dioscorea alata cultivar reveals the structure and evolution of young sex chromosomes.The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology · 2026Article
- Corallorhiza striata is the first example of a pseudocopulatory orchid in North America and an instance of "double deception" in fully mycoheterotrophic plants.American journal of botany · 2026Article
- Genome Assemblies of the Daisy Gorteria diffusa Elucidate the Molecular-Genomic Basis of Pollination by Sexual Deception.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Testing macroevolutionary predictions of the Grant-Stebbins model in the origin of Aeschynanthus acuminatus.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Poplar Sex-Determining Gene Directly Affects Tree Growth Through Regulating Cytokinin Signalling Pathway.Plant biotechnology journal · 2025Article
- Reversibility of sex changes in the plant kingdom: more important than we thought?Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Characteristics of Floral Volatiles and Their Effects on Attracting Pollinating Insects in ThreeBiology · 2025Article
- Self-sterility, self-incompatibility and xenia: a review of the mechanisms of cross-pollination benefits in animal-pollinated crops.Annals of botany · 2025Review
- Floral Integration and Phenotypic Selection on Floral Traits ofEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- Is Self-Incompatibility Related to Nectar Presence inPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Living Away From Specialized Pollinators: The Pollination System ofEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- Polygenic selection to a changing optimum under self-fertilisation.PLoS genetics · 2024Article
- Adaptive generalization in pollination systems: Hawkmoths increase fitness to long-tubed flowers, but secondary pollinators remain important.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Molecular insights into self-incompatibility systems: From evolution to breeding.Plant communications · 2024Review
- Convergent evolutionary patterns of heterostyly across angiosperms support the pollination-precision hypothesis.Nature communications · 2024Article
- A Foundational Population Genetics Investigation of the Sexual Systems ofPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Article
- Evolution of sex in crops: recurrent scrap and rebuild.Breeding science · 2023Article
- Article
- Heterochiasmy and Sex Chromosome Evolution inGenes · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Flowering plants are characterized by striking variation in reproductive systems, and the evolutionary lability of their sexual traits is often considered a major driver of lineage diversification. But, evolutionary transitions in reproductive form and function are never entirely unconstrained and many changes exhibit strong directionality. Here, I consider why this occurs by examining transitions in pollination, mating and sexual systems, some of which have been considered irreversible. Among pollination systems, shifts from bee to hummingbird pollination are rarely reversible, whereas transitions from animal to wind pollination are occasionally reversed. Specialized pollination systems can become destabilized through a loss of pollinator service resulting in a return to generalized pollination, or more commonly a reliance on self-pollination. Homomorphic and heteromorphic self-incompatibility systems have multiple origins but breakdown to self-compatibility occurs much more frequently with little evidence for subsequent gains, at least over short time-spans. Similarly, numerous examples of the shift from outcrossing to predominant self-fertilization are known, but cases of reversal are very limited supporting the view that autogamy usually represents an evolutionary dead-end. The evolution of dioecy from hermaphroditism has also been considered irreversible, although recent evidence indicates that the occurrence of sex inconstancy and hybridization can lead to the origin of derived sexual systems from dioecy. The directionality of many transitions clearly refutes the notion of unconstrained reproductive flexibility, but novel adaptive solutions generally do not retrace earlier patterns of trait evolution.
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