Rongli Liao1,2, Weibang Sun3, Yongpeng Ma4. 1. Yunnan Key Laboratory for Integrative Conservation of Plant Species with Extremely Small Populations/ Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan, China. 2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China. 3. Yunnan Key Laboratory for Integrative Conservation of Plant Species with Extremely Small Populations/ Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan, China. wbsun@mail.kib.ac.cn. 4. Yunnan Key Laboratory for Integrative Conservation of Plant Species with Extremely Small Populations/ Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan, China. mayongpeng@mail.kib.ac.cn.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: It has been recognized that a certain amount of habitat disturbance is a facilitating factor for the occurrence of natural hybridization, yet to date we are unaware of any studies exploring hybridization and reproductive barriers in those plants preferentially occupying disturbed habitats. Buddleja plants (also called butterfly bush) generally do grow in disturbed habitats, and several species with hybrid origin have been proposed, based solely on morphological evidence. RESULTS: In the present study, we test the hypothesis that B. × wardii is of natural hybridization origin in two sympatric populations of three taxa including B. × wardii and its parents (B. alternifolia and B. crispa) plus 4 referenced parental populations, using four nuclear genes and three chloroplast intergenic spacers, as well as with 10 morphological characters. Our results suggest that at both sites B. × wardii is likely to be a hybrid between B. alternifolia and B. crispa, and moreover, we confirm that most of the hybrids examined are F1s. That these plants are F1s is further supported by morphology, as no transgressive characters were detected. B. crispa was found to be the maternal parent in the Bahe (BH) population, from cpDNA evidence. However, in the Taji (TJ) population, the direction of hybridization was difficult to establish due to the shared cpDNA haplotypes between B. alternifolia and B. crispa, however we still predicted a similar unidirectional hybridization pattern due to results from cross-specific pollination treatments which supported the "SI × SC rule". CONCLUSIONS: The presence of mainly F1 hybrids can successfully impede gene flow and thus maintain species boundaries in parental species in a typical distribution of Buddleja, i.e. in disturbed habitats.
BACKGROUND: It has been recognized that a certain amount of habitat disturbance is a facilitating factor for the occurrence of natural hybridization, yet to date we are unaware of any studies exploring hybridization and reproductive barriers in those plants preferentially occupying disturbed habitats. Buddleja plants (also called butterfly bush) generally do grow in disturbed habitats, and several species with hybrid origin have been proposed, based solely on morphological evidence. RESULTS: In the present study, we test the hypothesis that B. × wardii is of natural hybridization origin in two sympatric populations of three taxa including B. × wardii and its parents (B. alternifolia and B. crispa) plus 4 referenced parental populations, using four nuclear genes and three chloroplast intergenic spacers, as well as with 10 morphological characters. Our results suggest that at both sites B. × wardii is likely to be a hybrid between B. alternifolia and B. crispa, and moreover, we confirm that most of the hybrids examined are F1s. That these plants are F1s is further supported by morphology, as no transgressive characters were detected. B. crispa was found to be the maternal parent in the Bahe (BH) population, from cpDNA evidence. However, in the Taji (TJ) population, the direction of hybridization was difficult to establish due to the shared cpDNA haplotypes between B. alternifolia and B. crispa, however we still predicted a similar unidirectional hybridization pattern due to results from cross-specific pollination treatments which supported the "SI × SC rule". CONCLUSIONS: The presence of mainly F1 hybrids can successfully impede gene flow and thus maintain species boundaries in parental species in a typical distribution of Buddleja, i.e. in disturbed habitats.
Authors: G Nieto Feliner; I Álvarez; J Fuertes-Aguilar; M Heuertz; I Marques; F Moharrek; R Piñeiro; R Riina; J A Rosselló; P S Soltis; I Villa-Machío Journal: Heredity (Edinb) Date: 2017-03-15 Impact factor: 3.821
Authors: Wei Zhang; Kanchon K Dasmahapatra; James Mallet; Gilson R P Moreira; Marcus R Kronforst Journal: Genome Biol Date: 2016-02-27 Impact factor: 13.583