This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: When it comes to reproduction, plants have options. Some can fertilize themselves, while others rely on pollen from genetically different plants.
Many populations even contain a mixture of both strategies. But scientists have long debated whether this mixed approach is truly stable or simply a temporary stage on the way from one reproductive strategy to another. Amit Jangid and professor Ohad Noy Feldheim from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem suggests that the answer may be more complicated than previously thought.
Researchers identified a previously undescribed state in which plants capable of self-fertilization and plants that require a partner can coexist over long periods, even though the proportions of each group may fluctuate dramatically. For flowering plants, the choice between self-fertilization and cross-fertilization comes with important trade-offs. Self-fertilization can be useful when potential mates or pollinators are scarce.
A plant does not have to depend on pollen arriving from another individual to reproduce. However, repeatedly reproducing with itself can increase the likelihood that harmful genetic mutations will affect its offspring, a phenomenon known as "inbreeding depression." Many plants avoid this problem through a genetic mechanism called self-incompatibility, which essentially allows a plant to recognize and reject its own pollen. The system promotes reproduction between genetically different individuals and helps maintain diversity within a population.
Self-incompatibility is found in about 40% of plant families and occurs in agriculturally important groups that include wild tomatoes, potatoes, apples, pears, citrus fruits and coffee. But these systems are not foolproof. Various genetic changes can disrupt the self-incompatibility mechanism, allowing some plants to become self-compatible and fertilize themselves.
As a result, populations can contain both self-compatible and self-incompatible plants. Until now, one influential idea has been that such mixed populations are largely transitional. Eventually, one reproductive strategy should take over.
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