Authors: Radka Rosenbaumová František Krahulec
Publish Date: 2014/05/23
Volume: 301, Issue: 1, Pages: 279-290
Abstract
We studied the significance of sexual reproduction as a source of ploidy level variation in a model system consisting of hexaploid facultatively apomictic Pilosella bauhini and tetraploid sexual P officinarum As the maternal parent apomictic P bauhini generated higher ploidy level variation than sexual P officinarum Ploidy levels of its progeny ranged from triploid to octoploid under experimental conditions and even to decaploid in the field This progeny diversity resulted from the breeding system in P bauhini which included haploid parthenogenesis and sexual reproduction through both reduced and unreduced gametes besides prevailing apomixis these particular reproductive pathways have been quantified Sexual P officinarum on the other hand reproduced exclusively through fusion of reduced gametes and produced only pentaploid hybrids or tetraploid progeny from autogamy allogamy or both Surprisingly sexual P officinarum was also the species showing stronger reproductive isolation especially under the field conditions where intraspecific fertilization was highly favoured most probably through competition between conspecific and heterospecific pollen Apomictic P bauhini thus appeared to be a significant source of ploidy level variation in the model population even though most of its progeny was formed clonally through apomixis Only part of this variation was manifested in the fieldWe thank to Anna Krahulcová for many critical and useful comments This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic DKRVO 2013/09 National Museum 00023272 to RR and by the longterm institutional research plan No AVOZ60050516 from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic to FK
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