Do flower-colonizing microbes influence floral evolution? A test with fast-cycling Brassica

Pollinators are thought to be the main drivers of floral evolution. Flowers are also colonized by abundant communities of microbes that can affect the interaction between plants and their pollinators. Very little is known, however, about how flower-colonizing microbes influence floral evolution. Here we performed a six-generation experimental evolution study using fast-cycling Brassica rapa, in which we factorially manipulated the presence of pollinators and flower microbes to determine how pollinators and microbes interact in driving floral evolution. We measured the evolution of six morphological traits, as well as plant mating system and flower attractiveness. Only one of the six traits (flower number) evolved in response to pollinators, while microbes did not drive the evolution of any trait, nor did they interact with pollinators in driving evolution of morphological traits. Moreover, we did not find evidence that pollinators or microbes affected the evolution of flower attractiven..., , , # Do flower-colonizing microbes influence floral evolution? A test with fast-cycling Brassica

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cjsxksnf9](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cjsxksnf9)

Data and code to analyse the effect of pollinators and microbes on the evolution of fast-cycling *Brassica rapa* in an experimental evolution study.

## Description of the data and file structure

There are four datasets:

\- \"Floral_traits\"

\- \"Autonomous-selfing\"

\- \"Choice_assays_brassica\"

\- \"UV_photos\"

**Floral_traits**

This dataset provides information on six plant traits measured on individuals of *Brassica rapa* from three different generations of experimental evolution (1, 7, and 8) and four treatments (presence or absence of pollination by bumblebees and inoculation by microbes, in a factorial design). This dataset was used with the code \"Floral_traits_analysis_SR\". Missing values in the dataset are identified as \"NA\".

Generation: Generation of experimental evolution for which the traits were me...