Adaptive Reduction of Male Gamete Number in the Selfing Plant Arabidopsis Thaliana

Tsuchimatsu, Takashi; Kakui, Hiroyuki; Yamazaki, Misako; Marona, Cindy; Tsutsui, Hiroki; Hedhly, Afif; Meng, Dazhe; Sato, Yutaka; Städler, Thomas; Grossniklaus, Ueli; Kanaoka, Masahiro M; Lenhard, Michael; Nordborg, Magnus; Shimizu, Kentaro K

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16679-7

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Tsuchimatsu, T., Kakui, H., Yamazaki, M., Marona, C., Tsutsui, H., Hedhly, A., Meng, D., Sato, Y., Städler, T., Grossniklaus, U., Kanaoka, M. M., Lenhard, M., Nordborg, M., & Shimizu, K. K. (2020). Adaptive Reduction of Male Gamete Number in the Selfing Plant Arabidopsis Thaliana. Nature Communications, 11, 2885. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16679-7

Abstract

The number of male gametes is critical for reproductive success and varies between and within species. The evolutionary reduction of the number of pollen grains encompassing the male gametes is widespread in selfing plants. Here, we employ genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify underlying loci and to assess the molecular signatures of selection on pollen number-associated loci in the predominantly selfing plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Regions of strong association with pollen number are enriched for signatures of selection, in