Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY
Volume 102, Issue 12, Pages 2041-2057Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.3732/ajb.1500330
Keywords
apomixis; cpDNA; ETS; ITS; LEAFY; microspecies; paralogy; polyploidy; semicryptic ploidy variation
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Funding
- National Science Foundation [BSR-9106226, DEB-9806945, DEB-0743225]
- Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station
- USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch Project [ME0-21405]
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PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Delimitation of Amelanchier species is difficult because of polyploidy and gametophytic apomixis. A first step in unraveling this species problem is understanding the diversity of the diploids that contributed genomes to polyploid apomicts. This research helps clarify challenging species-delimitation problems attending polyploid, apomictic complexity. METHODS: We sampled 431 diploid accessions from 13 species, of which 10 are North American and three are Old World. Quantitative morphological analyses tested the null hypothesis of no discrete groups. Using three to nine diploid accessions per species, we constructed phylogenies with DNA sequences from ETS, ITS, the second intron of LEAFY, and chloroplast regions rpoB-trnC, rpl16, trnD-trnT, and ycf6-psbM. KEY RESULTS: Most Amelanchier diploid taxa are morphologically and ecogeographically distinct and genetically exclusive lineages. They rarely hybridize with one another. Nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequences almost completely resolve the Amelanchier phylogeny. The backbone is the mostly western North American clade A, eastern North American clade B, and Old World clade O. DNA sequences and morphology support clades A and O as sister taxa. Despite extensive paralogy, our LEAFY data are phylogenetically informative and identify a clade (T) of three arborescent taxa within clade B. CONCLUSIONS: Amelanchier diploids differ strikingly from polyploid apomicts, in that hybridization among them is rare, and they form taxa that would qualify as species by most species concepts. Knowledge of diploid morphology, phylogeny, and ecogeography provides a foundation for understanding the evolutionary history of polyploid apomicts, their patterns of diversification, and their species status.
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