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Fertilisation or fertilization, also known as generative fertilisation, syngamy and impregnation, is the fusion of gametes to give rise to a new individual organism or offspring and initiate its development. Processes such as insemination or pollination which happen before the fusion of gametes are also sometimes informally called fertilisation. The cycle of fertilisation and development of new individuals is called sexual reproduction. During double fertilisation in angiosperms the haploid male gamete combines with two haploid polar nuclei to form a triploid primary endosperm nucleus by the process of vegetative fertilisation.
Inbreeding is the production of offspring from the mating or breeding of individuals or organisms that are closely related genetically. By analogy, the term is used in human reproduction, but more commonly refers to the genetic disorders and other consequences that may arise from expression of deleterious or recessive traits resulting from incestuous sexual relationships and consanguinity.
Small populations can behave differently from larger populations. They are often the result of population bottlenecks from larger populations, leading to loss of heterozygosity and reduced genetic diversity and loss or fixation of alleles and shifts in allele frequencies. A small population is then more susceptible to demographic and genetic stochastic events, which can impact the long-term survival of the population. Therefore, small populations are often considered at risk of endangerment or extinction, and are often of conservation concern.
Self-pollination is a form of pollination in which pollen from the same plant arrives at the stigma of a flower or at the ovule. There are two types of self-pollination: in autogamy, pollen is transferred to the stigma of the same flower; in geitonogamy, pollen is transferred from the anther of one flower to the stigma of another flower on the same flowering plant, or from microsporangium to ovule within a single (monoecious) gymnosperm. Some plants have mechanisms that ensure autogamy, such as flowers that do not open (cleistogamy), or stamens that move to come into contact with the stigma. The term selfing that is often used as a synonym, is not limited to self-pollination, but also applies to other types of self-fertilization.
A mating system is a way in which a group is structured in relation to sexual behaviour. The precise meaning depends upon the context. With respect to animals, the term describes which males and females mate under which circumstances. Recognised systems include monogamy, polygamy, and promiscuity, all of which lead to different mate choice outcomes and thus these systems affect how sexual selection works in the species which practice them. In plants, the term refers to the degree and circumstances of outcrossing. In human sociobiology, the terms have been extended to encompass the formation of relationships such as marriage.
In biochemistry, isozymes are enzymes that differ in amino acid sequence but catalyze the same chemical reaction. Isozymes usually have different kinetic parameters, or are regulated differently. They permit the fine-tuning of metabolism to meet the particular needs of a given tissue or developmental stage.
Inbreeding depression is the reduced biological fitness in a given population as a result of inbreeding. Population biological fitness refers to an organism's ability to survive and perpetuate its genetic material. Inbreeding depression is often the result of a population bottleneck. In general, the higher the genetic variation or gene pool within a breeding population, the less likely it is to suffer from inbreeding depression.
Mating in fungi is a complex process governed by mating types. Research on fungal mating has focused on several model species with different behaviour. Not all fungi reproduce sexually and many that do are isogamous; thus, for many members of the fungal kingdom, the terms "male" and "female" do not apply. Homothallic species are able to mate with themselves, while in heterothallic species only isolates of opposite mating types can mate.
Out-crossing or out-breeding is the technique of crossing between different breeds. This is the practice of introducing unrelated genetic material into a breeding line. It increases genetic diversity, thus reducing the probability of an individual being subject to disease or genetic abnormalities.
Schistocephalus solidus is a tapeworm of fish, fish-eating birds and rodents. This hermaphroditic parasite belongs to the Eucestoda subclass, of class Cestoda. This species has been used to demonstrate that cross-fertilization produces a higher infective success rate than self-fertilization.
The mixed-mating model is a mathematical model that describes the mating system of a plant population in terms of degree of self-fertilisation. It is a fairly simplistic model, employing several simplifying assumptions, most notably the assumption that every fertilisation event may be classed as either self-fertilisation, or outcrossing with a completely random mate. Thus the only model parameter to be estimated is the probability of self-fertilisation.
Leslie David Gottlieb (1936–2012) was a United States biologist described by the Botanical Society of America as "one of the most influential plant evolutionary biologists over the past several decades". He was employed at the University of California, Davis for 34 years, and published widely. In addition to his primary work in plant genetics, Gottlieb was an advocate for rare and endangered plant conservation.
Genetic purging is the reduction of the frequency of a deleterious allele, caused by an increased efficiency of natural selection prompted by inbreeding.
Genome-wide complex trait analysis (GCTA) Genome-based restricted maximum likelihood (GREML) is a statistical method for variance component estimation in genetics which quantifies the total narrow-sense (additive) contribution to a trait's heritability of a particular subset of genetic variants. This is done by directly quantifying the chance genetic similarity of unrelated individuals and comparing it to their measured similarity on a trait; if two unrelated individuals are relatively similar genetically and also have similar trait measurements, then the measured genetics are likely to causally influence that trait, and the correlation can to some degree tell how much. This can be illustrated by plotting the squared pairwise trait differences between individuals against their estimated degree of relatedness. The GCTA framework can be applied in a variety of settings. For example, it can be used to examine changes in heritability over aging and development. It can also be extended to analyse bivariate genetic correlations between traits. There is an ongoing debate about whether GCTA generates reliable or stable estimates of heritability when used on current SNP data. The method is based on the outdated and false dichotomy of genes versus the environment. It also suffers from serious methodological weaknesses, such as susceptibility to population stratification.
Autogamy, or self-fertilization, refers to the fusion of two gametes that come from one individual. Autogamy is predominantly observed in the form of self-pollination, a reproductive mechanism employed by many flowering plants. However, species of protists have also been observed using autogamy as a means of reproduction. Flowering plants engage in autogamy regularly, while the protists that engage in autogamy only do so in stressful environments.
Erythranthe nasuta is a species of monkeyflower. It was formerly known as Mimulus nasutus.
Robert Wayne Allard was an American plant breeder and plant population geneticist who is widely regarded as one of the leading plant population geneticists of the 20th century. Allard became Chair of the Genetics Department at University of California, Davis in 1967; he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1973, and was awarded the DeKalb-Pfizer Distinguished Career Award and the Crop Science Science of America Award. He was honored as the Nilsson-Ehle Lecturer of the Mendelian Society of Sweden and as the Wilhelmine Key lecturer of the American Genetic Association. He also served as president of the Genetics Society of America, the American Genetic Association and the American Society of Naturalists.
A mixed mating system, also known as “variable inbreeding” a characteristic of many hermaphroditic seed plants, where more than one means of mating is used. Mixed mating usually refers to the production of a mixture of self-fertilized (selfed) and outbred (outcrossed) seeds. Plant mating systems influence the distribution of genetic variation within and among populations, by affecting the propensity of individuals to self-fertilize or cross-fertilize . Mixed mating systems are generally characterized by the frequency of selfing vs. outcrossing, but may include the production of asexual seeds through agamospermy. The trade offs for each strategy depend on ecological conditions, pollinator abundance and herbivory and parasite load. Mating systems are not permanent within species; they can vary with environmental factors, and through domestication when plants are bred for commercial agriculture.
Reproductive assurance occurs as plants have mechanisms to assure full seed set through selfing when outcross pollen is limiting. It is assumed that self-pollination is beneficial, in spite of potential fitness costs, when there is insufficient pollinator services or outcross pollen from other individuals to accomplish full seed set.. This phenomenon has been observed since the 19th century, when Darwin observed that self-pollination was common in some plants. Constant pollen limitation may cause the evolution of automatic selfing, also known as autogamy. This occurs in plants such as weeds, and is a form of reproductive assurance. As plants pursue reproductive assurance through self-fertilization, there is an increase in homozygosity, and inbreeding depression, due to genetic load, which results in reduced fitness of selfed offspring. Solely outcrossing plants may not be successful colonizers of new regions due to lack of other plants to outcross with, so colonizing species are expected to have mechanisms of reproductive assurance - an idea first proposed by Herbert Baker and referred to as Baker's Law. Baker’s Law predicts that reproductive assurance should be common in weedy plants that persist by colonizing new sites. As plants evolve towards increase self-fertilization, energy is redirected to seed production rather than characteristics that increased outcrossing, such as floral attractants, which is a condition known as the selfing syndrome.
Cryptic self-incompatibility (CSI) is the botanical expression that's used to describe a weakened self-incompatibility (SI) system. CSI is one expression of a mixed mating system in flowering plants. Both SI and CSI are traits that increase the frequency of fertilization of ovules by outcross pollen, as opposed to self-pollen.
References
- 1 2 3 Ritland, Kermit (1984). "The effective proportion of self-fertilisation with consanguineous matings in inbred populations". Genetics. 106 (1): 139–152. doi:10.1093/genetics/106.1.139. PMC 1202242 . PMID 17246188.
- 1 2 3 Brown, A. H. D.; et al. (1989). "Isozyme analysis of plant mating systems". In Soltis, D. E.; Soltis, P. S. (eds.). Isozymes in Plant Biology. Portland: Dioscorides Press. pp. 73–86.
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