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Sex-Differential Herbivory in Androdioecious Mercurialis annua

Males of plants with separate sexes are often more prone to attack by herbivores than females. A common explanation for this pattern is that individuals with a greater male function suffer more from herbivory because they grow more quickly, drawing more heavily on resources for growth that might oth...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sánchez Vilas, Julia, Pannell, John R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3135621/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21779379
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0022083
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author Sánchez Vilas, Julia
Pannell, John R.
author_facet Sánchez Vilas, Julia
Pannell, John R.
author_sort Sánchez Vilas, Julia
collection PubMed
description Males of plants with separate sexes are often more prone to attack by herbivores than females. A common explanation for this pattern is that individuals with a greater male function suffer more from herbivory because they grow more quickly, drawing more heavily on resources for growth that might otherwise be allocated to defence. Here, we test this ‘faster-sex’ hypothesis in a species in which males in fact grow more slowly than hermaphrodites, the wind-pollinated annual herb Mercurialis annua. We expected greater herbivory in the faster-growing hermaphrodites. In contrast, we found that males, the slower sex, were significantly more heavily eaten by snails than hermaphrodites. Our results thus reject the faster-sex hypothesis and point to the importance of a trade-off between defence and reproduction rather than growth.
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spelling pubmed-31356212011-07-21 Sex-Differential Herbivory in Androdioecious Mercurialis annua Sánchez Vilas, Julia Pannell, John R. PLoS One Research Article Males of plants with separate sexes are often more prone to attack by herbivores than females. A common explanation for this pattern is that individuals with a greater male function suffer more from herbivory because they grow more quickly, drawing more heavily on resources for growth that might otherwise be allocated to defence. Here, we test this ‘faster-sex’ hypothesis in a species in which males in fact grow more slowly than hermaphrodites, the wind-pollinated annual herb Mercurialis annua. We expected greater herbivory in the faster-growing hermaphrodites. In contrast, we found that males, the slower sex, were significantly more heavily eaten by snails than hermaphrodites. Our results thus reject the faster-sex hypothesis and point to the importance of a trade-off between defence and reproduction rather than growth. Public Library of Science 2011-07-13 /pmc/articles/PMC3135621/ /pubmed/21779379 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0022083 Text en Sánchez Vilas, Pannell. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Sánchez Vilas, Julia
Pannell, John R.
Sex-Differential Herbivory in Androdioecious Mercurialis annua
title Sex-Differential Herbivory in Androdioecious Mercurialis annua
title_full Sex-Differential Herbivory in Androdioecious Mercurialis annua
title_fullStr Sex-Differential Herbivory in Androdioecious Mercurialis annua
title_full_unstemmed Sex-Differential Herbivory in Androdioecious Mercurialis annua
title_short Sex-Differential Herbivory in Androdioecious Mercurialis annua
title_sort sex-differential herbivory in androdioecious mercurialis annua
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3135621/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21779379
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0022083
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