CONTROL OF SEX RATIOS IN HAPLOID POPULATIONS OF THE MOSS, CERATODON PURPUREUS

Female biased sex ratios occur in a number of unrelated mosses. Such ratios refer to the relative numbers of male and female gametophytes in moss populations and are therefore more comparable to the numbers of pollen grains and ovules in populations of seed plants than to the numbers of male (microsporangiate) and female (megasporangiate) sporophytes. A survey of 11 populations of the moss, Ceratodon purpureus, showed that sex ratios are heterogeneous, but that female biases occur in more than half the populations. One hundred and sixty single spore isolates representing 40 sporophytes from one population demonstrated that female gametophytes outnumbered males by a ratio of 3:2 at the time of germination. Female gametophytic clones formed significantly more biomass than male clones, and individual female shoots were more robust. Male clones, however, produced more numerous stems. These sexually dimorphic traits may be related to life history differences between male and female gametophytes since females must provide nutritional support to the "parasitic" sporophyte generation, a burden that males do not share.