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Project: Linking changes in pollinator behaviour with their effect on male fitness in buzz-pollinated flowers
Project: Linking changes in pollinator behaviour with their effect on male fitness in buzz-pollinated flowers
2024 - 2026
Uppsala University - Sweden
Lilian Melo & Mario Vallejo-Marin
The main goal of the proposed work is to determine how variation in pollinator behaviour affects patterns of male reproductive success in a plant buzz-pollinated by bees. Buzz pollinated plants are often nectarless, and the main resource collected by visiting bees is pollen. Pollen-collecting bees are dynamic actors that change their behaviour in response to the pollen resources they collected.
Project: Evolution of Pollen Flowers in Angiosperms
Project: Evolution of Pollen Flowers in Angiosperms
2019 - 2023
Federal University of Uberlândia - Brazil
Lilian Melo, Thais Vasconcelos and Vinicius Brito
The research explored different floral morphologies and reproductive strategies, as well as investigated when these pollen flowers originated and where they were positioned within the phylogeny. In addition, from a biogeographic perspective, it examined the distribution of families exhibiting more specialized interactions, such as Melastomataceae. Finally, from a macroevolutionary perspective, the study combined environmental variables and floral traits to explain the diversification dynamics of pollen flowers, alongside phenotypic selection model analyses aimed at understanding the evolution of floral trait adaptations.
Project: Evolution of stamen dimetrism in Melastomataceae, a large radiation of pollen flowers
Project: Evolution of stamen dimetrism in Melastomataceae, a large radiation of pollen flowers
2017 - 2019
Federal University of Uberlândia - Brazil
Lilian Melo, Thais Vasconcelos, Ana Paula Caetano and Vinicius Brito
Changes in floral traits across evolutionary time are expected in response to selective pressures imposed by pollinators. Stamen dimetrism (here defined as size differences between stamens within the same flower) represents an important strategy to decrease pollen loss during bee-flower interactions in pollen flowers. However, the evolutionary history of stamen dimetrism, and the links between this and other reproductive traits across long periods of time are still poorly understood. Here we investigate the evolution of stamens dimetrism and the evolutionary correlation of this trait and other floral structures and reproductive strategies in Melastomataceae. Floral traits were scored from 336 species and reproductive biology data was gathered for 81 species. Stamen dimetrism is a labile trait, appeared several times throughout the evolutionary history of this clade and is evolutionarily correlated to floral size. Among the 81 species analyzed, we observed that the lineages that depend on pollinators to reproduce correspond to those that evolved the highest stamen dimetrism. The evolutionary lability of stamen dimetrism has probably contributed to the maintenance of the buzz pollination adaptive plateau in possibly the largest radiation of pollen flowers in angiosperms.
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