Meeting Abstract

S11-1.2  Monday, Jan. 7  Metamers, modules, phenotypic plasticity, and the evolution of diverse sexual systems in plants DIGGLE, P.K.; Univeristy of Colorado, Boulder pamela.diggle@colorado.edu

Plant development is metameric: apical meristems produce a sequence of repeated units over space and time. These metamers, in turn, may be modular with the potential for independent adjustment of component traits. As a result, plastic developmental responses can occur at multiple levels of the phenotype. For example, flowers within inflorescences are metamers, and within individual flowers the development of the androecium (male reproductive structures) and gynoecium (female reproductive strictures) may (or may not) be relatively independent and modular. Changes in allocation to male vs. female reproduction potentially can occur via modification of intra-floral development and via the number and timing of metamer production. Both types of response, however, occur with in the context of “whole plant” properties such as architecture. I will discuss the relationship between phenotypically plastic responses at multiple levels of organization to the evolution of the diverse sexual systems observed among plants.