TY  - JOUR
A1  - Sicard, Adrien
A1  - Lenhard, Michael
T1  - The selfing syndrome  a model for studying the genetic and evolutionary basis of morphological adaptation in plants
JF  - Annals of botany
N2  - Background In angiosperm evolution, autogamously selfing lineages have been derived from outbreeding ancestors multiple times, and this transition is regarded as one of the most common evolutionary tendencies in flowering plants. In most cases, it is accompanied by a characteristic set of morphological and functional changes to the flowers, together termed the selfing syndrome. Two major areas that have changed during evolution of the selfing syndrome are sex allocation to male vs. female function and flower morphology, in particular flower (mainly petal) size and the distance between anthers and stigma.
 Scope A rich body of theoretical, taxonomic, ecological and genetic studies have addressed the evolutionary modification of these two trait complexes during or after the transition to selfing. Here, we review our current knowledge about the genetics and evolution of the selfing syndrome.
 Conclusions We argue that because of its frequent parallel evolution, the selfing syndrome represents an ideal model for addressing basic questions about morphological evolution and adaptation in flowering plants, but that realizing this potential will require the molecular identification of more of the causal genes underlying relevant trait variation.
KW  - Evolution
KW  - selfing syndrome
KW  - autogamy
KW  - pollen-to-ovule ratio
KW  - flower size
KW  - herkogamy
KW  - quantitative trait loci
KW  - self-incompatibility
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcr023
SN  - 0305-7364
SN  - 1095-8290
VL  - 107
IS  - 9
SP  - 1433
EP  - 1443
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Oxford
ER  -