基于DNA分子标记的花粉流动态分析

花粉介导的基因流是植物有性繁殖世代之间的桥梁, 花粉散布属性是植物繁殖生态学、保护生物学和进化生物学研究关注的焦点。随着DNA分子技术的发展, 花粉流分析所使用的分子标记(尤其是微卫星标记)逐步替代了早期物理标记, 基于最大似然法估计以及新兴的基于贝叶斯推断的父本指派算法的发展, 能有效地估计花粉流散布的方向、距离和强度等重要特征。花粉散布曲线由单一参数向多参数模型发展, 以更好地获得花粉散布特征的拟合效果, 双组分的复合模型利用相互独立的参数空间使得散布曲线在长距离和短距离形状上呈现更大的可塑性。这些革新的技术和方法被成功应用于植物性别表型、隔离种群和杂交物种间花粉流分析, 以探讨进化、生态和保护等多领域的基础理论问题。近年来, 高通量测序技术的发展将进一步加快以分子标记为基础的花粉流动态分析在更广泛的植物类群中运用。

Pollen dispersal analysis using DNA markers

Modes of pollen dispersal are important for plant ecology, conservation, and evolutionary biology as pollen-mediated gene flow connects one generation of sexually-reproducing plants to the next. With the development of DNA molecular techniques, molecular markers (especially microsatellite markers) have replaced traditional physical markers for pollen flow analysis. Methods of paternity assignment with maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference have greatly improved the estimation of pollen flow characteristics with regard to direction, distance, and strength. Pollen dispersal curves have been characterized by single parameter, two-parameter, multi-parameter, and two-component composite models to better evaluate the shape of dispersal distributions. These innovative techniques and methods have been successfully applied to assess pollination patterns in studies of plant sexual polymorphism, population connectivity, and natural hybridization, which, in turn, have provided important insights into basic theories of evolution, ecology, and conservation. In the coming years, high-throughput sequencing technologies are expected to accelerate the application of molecular marker-based pollen flow analysis across a wide range of plant taxa.