Organisms Commons^™

Sex-Specific Fungal Communities Of The Dioicous Moss Ceratodon Purpureus, Mehmet Ali Balkan

Dissertations and Theses

Mosses display a number of hallmark life history traits that influence their ecology at the population and community level. The long lived separation of sexes observed in the haploid gametophyte (dioicy) is one such feature of particular importance, as it is observed in the majority of bryophytes and creates intraspecific specialization of male and female individuals.

The prevalence of sexually dimorphic mosses raises the possibility of sex-specific interactions with fungi as observed in some vascular plants. Here I investigated how moss sex shapes fungal communities associated with gametophytic tissues of the ubiquitous moss, Ceratodon purpureus. Using greenhouse populations of …