Vicia cracca diploids and autotetraploids are highly parapatric in Europe; tetraploids reside in western and northern part, whereas diploids occupy much drier south-eastern part. They meet together in a Central European contact zone. This distribution pattern raised questions about a transformative effect of polyploidization on plant performance and environmental tolerances. We investigated plant survival, growth, and seed production in two water regimes in a common garden experiment using seeds collected from five localities in the Central European contact zone where diploids and tetraploids occur in sympatry. Obtained data imply that tetraploids of V. cracca are not generally superior in performance to diploids. Significantly larger seeds from tetraploid mother plants collected in the field were not correlated with greater stature of the seedlings. Nonetheless, tetraploids might have a potential to out-compete diploids in the long run due to the tetraploids' ability of greater growth which manifested in the second year of cultivation. Considering the response of diploids and tetraploids to water supply, drought stressed tetraploids but not diploids produced a higher proportion of aborted seeds than watered ones, which implies that tetraploids are more drought susceptible than diploids. On the other hand, decreased plant height in drought stresses tetraploids, which simultaneously increased total seed production, may suggest that tetraploids have a greater ability to avoid local extinction under unfavourable conditions by enhancing biomass allocation into production of seeds at the cost of lower growth. The significant interaction between ploidy level and locality in several traits suggests possible polyfyletic origin of tetraploids and the necessity to clarify the history of the tetraploids in Europe.
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Despite the great importance of autopolyploidy in the evolution of angiosperms, relatively little attention has been devoted to autopolyploids in natural polyploid systems. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain why autopolyploids are so common and successful, for example increased genetic diversity and heterozygosity and the transition towards selfing. However, case studies on patterns of genetic diversity and on mating systems in autopolyploids are scarce. In this study allozymes were employed to investigate the origin, population genetic diversity and mating system in the contact zone between diploid and assumed autotetraploid cytotypes of Vicia cracca in Central Europe. METHODS: Four enzyme systems resolved in six putative loci were investigated in ten diploid, ten tetraploid and five mixed-ploidy populations. Genetic diversity and heterozygosity, partitioning of genetic diversity among populations and cytotypes, spatial genetic structure and fixed heterozygosity were analysed. These studies were supplemented by a pollination experiment and meiotic chromosome observation. KEY RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Weak evidence of fixed heterozygosity, a low proportion of unique alleles and genetic variation between cytotypes similar to the variation among populations within cytotypes supported the autopolyploid origin of tetraploids, although no multivalent formation was observed. Tetraploids possessed more alleles than diploids and showed higher observed zygotic heterozygosity than diploids, but the observed gametic heterozygosity was similar to the value observed in diploids and smaller than expected under panmixis. Values of the inbreeding coefficient and differentiation among populations (ρST) suggested that the breeding system in both cytotypes of V. cracca is mixed mating with prevailing outcrossing. The reduction in seed production of tetraploids after selfing was less than that in diploids. An absence of correlation between genetic and geographic distances and high differentiation among neighbouring tetraploid populations supports the secondary contact hypothesis with tetraploids of several independent origins in Central Europe. Nevertheless, the possibility of a recent in situ origin of tetraploids through a triploid bridge in some regions is also discussed.
- MeSH
- Alleles MeSH
- Diploidy * MeSH
- Genetic Variation * MeSH
- Heterozygote MeSH
- Isoenzymes genetics MeSH
- Pollination genetics MeSH
- Genetics, Population * MeSH
- Self-Fertilization genetics MeSH
- Seeds genetics MeSH
- Tetraploidy * MeSH
- Vicia genetics MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Geographicals
- Czech Republic MeSH
- Europe MeSH
- Slovakia MeSH
Background and Aims: Understanding the direct consequences of polyploidization is necessary for assessing the evolutionary significance of this mode of speciation. Previous studies have not studied the degree of between-population variation that occurs due to these effects. Although it is assumed that the effects of the substances that create synthetic polyploids disappear in second-generation synthetic polyploids, this has not been tested. Methods: The direct consequences of polyploidization were assessed and separated from the effects of subsequent evolution in Vicia cracca , a naturally occurring species with diploid and autotetraploid cytotypes. Synthetic tetraploids were created from diploids of four mixed-ploidy populations. Performance of natural diploids and tetraploids was compared with that of synthetic tetraploids. Diploid offspring of the synthetic tetraploid mothers were also included in the comparison. In this way, the effects of colchicine application in the maternal generation on offspring performance could be compared independently of the effects of polyploidization. Key Results: The sizes of seeds and stomata were primarily affected by cytotype, while plant performance differed between natural and synthetic polyploids. Most performance traits were also determined by colchicine application to the mothers, and most of these results were largely population specific. Conclusions: Because the consequences of colchicine application are still apparent in the second generation of the plants, at least the third-generation polyploids should be considered in future comparisons. The specificities of the colchicine-treated plants may also be caused by strong selection pressures during the creation of synthetic polyploids. This could be tested by comparing the initial sizes of plants that survived the colchicine treatments with those of plants that did not. High variation between populations also suggests that different polyploids follow different evolutionary trajectories, and this should be considered when studying the effects of polyploidization.
The contents of photosynthetic pigments are an important indicator of many processes taking place in the plant body. Still, however, our knowledge of the effects of polyploidization, a major driver of speciation in vascular plants, on the contents of photosynthetic pigments is very sparse. We compared the contents of photosynthetic pigments among natural diploids, natural tetraploids, and synthetic tetraploids. The material originated from four natural mixed-cytotype populations of diploid and autotetraploid Vicia cracca (Fabaceae) occurring in the contact zone between the cytotypes in Central Europe and was cultivated under uniform conditions. We explored whether the contents of pigments are primarily driven by polyploidization or by subsequent evolution of the polyploid lineage and whether the patterns differ between populations. We also explored the relationship between pigment contents and plant performance. We found very few significant effects of the cytotype on the individual pigments but many significant interactions between the cytotype and the population. In pair-wise comparisons, many comparisons were not significant. The prevailing pattern among the significant once was that the contents of pigments were determined by polyploidization rather than by subsequent evolution of the polyploid lineage. The contents of the pigments turned out to be a useful predictor of plant performance not only at the time of material collection, but also at the end of the growing season. Further studies exploring differences in the contents of photosynthetic pigments in different cytotypes using replicated populations and assessing their relationship to plant performance are needed to assess the generality of our findings.
