• Seed coat and seed reserve show substantial mass variation, play different roles in plant life strategies and are shaped by different selective forces. However, remarkably little is known about the macroevolution of the relative allocation in seed components and its influence on important ecophysiological processes.
• Using phylogenetic comparative methods and evolutionary modelling approaches, we modelled mass changes in seed components along individual lineages for 940 species and compared the patterns across seed desiccation responses.
• Seed component allocation was driven primarily by changes in reserve mass rather than coat mass, as evolutionary rates in reserve mass significantly outpaced those in coat mass. Although the scaling patterns between reserve mass and coat mass were similar across desiccation responses, desiccation‐sensitive seeds allocated more and evolved faster in reserve compared to desiccation‐tolerant seeds.
• The findings emphasize the relative importance of reserve to coat in the evolution of plant reproductive strategies, revealing potential ecological advantages gained by enlarged reserve. As the first quantification of the evolutionary tempo and mode of seed component mass, our study allows a detailed interpretation of evolutionary pathways underlying seed storage behaviours and advances the understanding of the evolution of desiccation sensitivity in seeds.

中文翻译：

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种子组分质量中的宏观进化模式以及整个种子脱水反应的不同进化轨迹。

• 种皮和种子储备表现出明显的质量变化，在植物生命策略中起不同的作用，并且受不同的选择力影响。但是，对于种子成分中相对分配的宏观演变及其对重要生态生理过程的影响知之甚少。
• 使用系统发育比较方法和进化建模方法，我们对940个物种沿着各个谱系的种子成分质量变化进行了建模，并比较了种子干燥反应的模式。
• 种子成分的分配主要是由储备量而不是表皮量的变化来驱动的，因为储备量的进化速度大大超过了表皮量。尽管在不同的干燥反应中，储备质量和皮毛质量之间的缩放比例模式相似，但与耐旱种子相比，对干旱敏感的种子分配更多，并且在储备中的进化更快。
• 这些发现强调了保护区在植物繁殖策略演变中的相对重要性，揭示了扩大保护区所具有的潜在生态优势。作为对种子成分质量的进化速度和模式的首次量化，我们的研究允许对种子贮藏行为的进化途径进行详细解释，并提高对种子干燥敏感性进化的理解。