Chapter 1 New Insights on Heterostyly: Comparative Biology, Ecology and Genetics

Abstract Here, we review recent progress on the evolutionary history, functional ecology, genetics and molecular biology of heterostyly using a variety of taxa to illustrate advances in understanding. Distyly and tristyly represent remarkable examples of convergent evolution and are represented in at least 28 flowering plant families. The floral polymorphisms promote disassortative mating and are maintained in populations by negative frequency-dependent selection. Compara-tive analyses using phylogenies and character reconstruction demonstrate multiple independent origins of heterostyly and the pathways of evolution in several groups. Field studies of pollen transport support the Darwinian hypothesis that the recip-rocal style–stamen polymorphism functions to increase the proficiency of animal-mediated cross-pollination. Although the patterns of inheritance of the style morphs are well established in diverse taxa, the identity, number and organization of genes controlling the heterostylous syndrome are unknown, despite recent progress. In future, it will be particularly important to establish the contribution of ‘supergenes’ vs. regulatory loci that cause morph-limited expression of genes