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Novel Computed Tomography-based tools reliably quantify plant reproductive investment

Yannick M Staedler, Thomas Kreisberger, Sara Manafzadeh, Marion Chartier, Stephan Handschuh, Susanne Pamperl, Susanne Sontag, Ovidiu Paun, Juerg Schoenenberger
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/182386
Yannick M Staedler
University of Vienna;
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  • For correspondence: yannick.staedler@univie.ac.at
Thomas Kreisberger
University of Vienna;
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Sara Manafzadeh
University of Vienna;
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Marion Chartier
University of Vienna;
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Stephan Handschuh
University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
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Susanne Pamperl
University of Vienna;
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Susanne Sontag
University of Vienna;
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Ovidiu Paun
University of Vienna;
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Juerg Schoenenberger
University of Vienna;
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Abstract

The flower is a bisexual reproductive unit where both genders compete for resources. Counting pollen and ovules in flowers is essential to understand how much is invested in each gender. Classical methods to count very numerous pollen grains and ovules are inefficient when pollen grains are tightly aggregated, and when fertilization rates of ovules are unknown. We thus established novel, Computed-Tomography-based counting techniques. In order to display the potential of our methods in very difficult cases, we counted pollen and ovules across inflorescences of deceptive and rewarding species of European orchids, which possess both very large numbers of pollen grains (tightly aggregated) and ovules. Pollen counts did not significantly vary across inflorescences and pollination strategies, whereas deceptive flowers had significantly more ovules than rewarding flowers. The within inflorescence variance of pollen to ovule ratios in rewarding flowers was four times higher than in deceptive flowers, possibly demonstrating differences in the constraints acting on both pollination strategies. We demonstrate the inaccuracies and limitations of previously established methods, and the broad applicability of our new techniques: they allow measurement of reproductive investment without restriction on object number or aggregation, and without specimen destruction.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder. It is made available under a CC-BY-ND 4.0 International license.
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  • Posted August 30, 2017.

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Novel Computed Tomography-based tools reliably quantify plant reproductive investment
Yannick M Staedler, Thomas Kreisberger, Sara Manafzadeh, Marion Chartier, Stephan Handschuh, Susanne Pamperl, Susanne Sontag, Ovidiu Paun, Juerg Schoenenberger
bioRxiv 182386; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/182386
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Novel Computed Tomography-based tools reliably quantify plant reproductive investment
Yannick M Staedler, Thomas Kreisberger, Sara Manafzadeh, Marion Chartier, Stephan Handschuh, Susanne Pamperl, Susanne Sontag, Ovidiu Paun, Juerg Schoenenberger
bioRxiv 182386; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/182386

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