UCR researchers examine how some invasive plants gain ...( RIVERSIDE Calif. -- University of Cal...)

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- University of California, Riverside genetics Professor Norman Ellstrand led a team of researchers whose findings suggest that harnessing the sexual requirements of some plants can help control the establishment of invasive species.

Using the California wild radish as their model, Ellstrand and graduate student Caroline Ridley at the UCR Department of Botany and Plant Sciences co-authored the research study titled Population size and relatedness affect fitness of self-incompatible invasive plants, published in the Dec. 29 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The current article originated from a doctoral dissertation project by former UCR graduate student Diane Elam. Fellow graduate student Karen Goodell also worked on the project. Elam is now with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Sacramento office. Karen Goodell now teaches at Ohio State University.

The experiment involved population groups ranging in size from two to 20 plants and was carried out at UCR's Agricultural Experiment Station. The experiment examined whether a biological phenomenon known as the Allee effect could be used to battle the spread of invasive plants. The Allee effect, named after ecologist W.C. Allee, says that the smaller and sparser a given population, the harder and slower it is for that population to establish itself and expand its range.

Because the California wild radish is what plant biologist call self-incompatible it needs another plant to reproduce researchers wanted to know if its fertility would be impacted by population size and the degree to which the mating pairs were genetically related. They found that, as with humans, mates were harder to find in smaller populations and most likely to be compatible if unrelated.

"We call this the 'single's bar effect,'" Ellstrand said. "Namely, that mating success increases both with the number of possible mates and their sexual receptivity."
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Contact: Ricardo Duran
ricardo.duran@ucr.edu
951-827-5893
University of California - Riverside
9-Jan-2007