New Phytologist

The evolution of predominant self‐fertilisation frequently coincides with the evolution of a collection of phenotypes that comprise the ‘selfing syndrome’, in both plants and animals. Genomic features also display a selfing syndrome. Selfing syndrome traits often involve changes to male and female reproductive characters that were subject to sexual selection and sexual conflict in the obligatorily outcrossing ancestor, including the gametic phase for both plants and animals. Rapid evolution of reproductive traits, due to both relaxed selection and directional selection under the new status of predominant selfing, lays the genetic groundwork for reproductive isolation. Consequently, shifts in sexual selection pressures coupled to transitions to selfing provide a powerful paradigm for investigating the speciation process. Plant and animal studies, however, emphasise distinct selective forces influencing reproductive‐mode transitions: genetic transmission advantage to selfing or reproductive assurance outweighing the costs of inbreeding depression vs the costs of males and meiosis. Here, I synthesise links between sexual selection, evolution of selfing and speciation, with particular focus on identifying commonalities and differences between plant and animal systems and pointing to areas warranting further synergy.

A long‐term goal of community ecology is to identify spatial and temporal factors that underlie observed community structures. Ultimately, ecologists seek to relate community patterns to ecosystem processes and functions. Since the mid 1990s, ectomycorrhizal (ECM) research has been equipped with tools to identify and fully quantify the taxonomic diversity in below‐ground ECM fungal communities in detail and address such questions. Many of the most important functions of terrestrial ecosystems, as well as interactions, between plants take place below ground and mycorrhizal fungi are among the key players in soil ecology. Here the rapidly increasing knowledge of ECM fungal community ecology is reviewed and the prospects discussed for elucidating processes that structure ECM fungal communities and the way in which such knowledge might be integrated with, and advance, the understanding of plant ecology and ecosystem processes.

In this study, we examined the biochemical and physiological functions of Nicotiana benthamiana S1 domain‐containing Transcription‐Stimulating Factor (STF) using virus‐induced gene silencing (VIGS), cosuppression, and overexpression strategies.

Despite the importance of pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins in organellar RNA metabolism and plant development, the functions of many PPR proteins remain unknown. Here, we determined the role of a mitochondrial PPR protein (At1g52620) comprising 19 PPR motifs, thus named PPR19, in Arabidopsis thaliana.