Microarthropods Mediate Sperm Transfer in Mosses

@article{Cronberg2006MicroarthropodsMS,
  title={Microarthropods Mediate Sperm Transfer in Mosses},
  author={Nils Cronberg and Rayna Natcheva and Katarina Hedlund},
  journal={Science},
  year={2006},
  volume={313},
  pages={1255 - 1255}
}
Among flowering plants, animals commonly act as pollinators. We showed that fertile moss shoots attract springtails and mites, which in turn carry moss sperm, thereby enhancing the fertilization process. Previously, fertilization of mosses was thought to depend on the capacity of individual sperm to swim through a continuous water layer. The role of microarthropods in moss fertilization resembles the role of animals as pollinators of flowering plants but may be evolutionarily much older because… 
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104 Citations

Animal-mediated fertilization in bryophytes - parallel or precursor to insect pollination in angiosperms?

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A ’Bryophyte precursor hypothesis of plant pollination’ is suggested stating that animal-mediated fertilization in mosses and insect pollination in seed plants is historically linked by homologous or analogous evolution of structures responsible for attraction and reward aimed at a pool of fertilization vectors originally co-evolved with bryophytes and subsequently co-opted by seed plants.

Pollinators of the sea: A discovery of animal-mediated fertilization in seaweed.

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It is demonstrated that biotic interactions dramatically increase the fertilization success of the alga through animal transport of spermatia on their body, suggesting that animal-mediated fertilization could have evolved independently in terrestrial and marine environments and raises the possibility of its emergence in the sea before plants moved ashore.

Sex-specific volatile compounds influence microarthropod-mediated fertilization of moss

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The results indicate the presence of a scent-based ‘plant–pollinator-like’ relationship that has evolved between two of Earth’s most ancient terrestrial lineages, mosses and microarthropods.

Water mediates fertilization in a terrestrial flowering plant.

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The results reveal a previously undescribed fertilization mechanism in flowering plants involving water-mediated fertilization stimulated by rain, likely to be adaptive in the subtropical monsoon environments in which C. gracilis occurs by ensuring reproductive assurance when persistent rain prevents insect-mediated pollination.

Airborne sperm of Conocephalum conicum (Conocephalaceae)

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The first momentary photographs of sperms just as they are discharged from the antheridium of a liverwort, Conocephalum conicum, are obtained and airborne sperMS of bryophytes under field conditions are monitored.

Testing the Ecological and Physiological Factors Influencing Reproductive Success in Mosses

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It is found that a fraction of sperm cells were tolerant to environmental desiccation for extended periods (days) and that tolerance did not vary among species and that the addition of sucrose during dry-down improved cell recovery.

Long-lived sperm in the geothermal bryophyte Pohlia nutans

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The lifespan of sperm of Pohlia nutans, collected from a geothermal spring's area, and the effects of variation under environmental conditions on this lifespan are documented and suggest the need to reconsider the importance of sperm motility in bryophyte fertilization.

Tolerance to environmental desiccation in moss sperm.

TLDR
A fraction of sperm cells were tolerant to environmental desiccation for extended periods and that tolerance did not vary among species, suggesting the presence of a significant, uncharacterized complexity in the ecology of moss mating systems.

Microarthropod contributions to fitness variation in the common moss Ceratodon purpureus

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An estimate of the fitness benefit for mosses in the presence of microarthropods is provided, and the potential for biotic dispersal agents to alter fitness among moss genotypes in this relationship is highlighted.

Geographical range in liverworts: does sex really matter?

TLDR
The results challenge the long-held notion that spores, and not vegetative propagules, are involved in long-distance dispersal, so that monoecious species do not tend to display, on average, broader distribution ranges than dioecious ones.
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