We use both molecular and experimental tools to study plant mating systems and life-history evolution. The evolution of mating system diversity in higher plants.
Many plants reject their own pollen to avoid the detrimental effects of inbreeding.
If the allele carried by the pollen matches either allele in the female parent, pollen tube growth is arrested. Rare alleles at this locus have a selective advantage, being compatible with more potential mates. The number of alleles maintained in a population provides a genetic means of estimating effective population size. At the molecular level allelic lineages are often tens of millions of years old, older than the species in which they currently reside. This is reflected in the fact that an allele found in one species is often more closely related to an allele found in another species than it is to other alleles from the same species.