Browsing by Subject "apomixis"

What evolutionary processes and ecological patterns underlie the maintenance of asexual reproduction in natural populations? Although a vast body of literature offers theory to explain the existence of sexual and asexual reproduction, there has been little study of these forms of reproduction in the natural environment. In this dissertation I use a combination of field experiments, greenhouse studies, and genetic techniques to answer this question in the model plant system Boechera.

In Chapter 1, I review the utility of this system for studying ecological and evolutionary questions in general. Boechera offers an array of genetic and genomic tools, facilitated in part by a close evolutionary relationship with the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, as well as undisturbed ecology and habitat that extends across much of North America. Additionally, the presence of apomixis (asexual reproduction via parthenogenetic formation of seeds) at the diploid level makes Boechera an ideal system for studying sex without the often-confounding factor of polyploidy; Boechera is one of very few plant groups in which this is possible.

In Chapter 2, I use a combination of microsatellite markers, flow cytometry, chromosome squashes, and morphological work to characterize apomixis, polyploidy, and species diversity in over 100 natural populations collected from central Idaho and western Montana. As in many other apomictic systems, I find that apomixis in Boechera is strongly linked to hybridization between species or between genetically divergent intraspecific lineages. I then explore associations between apomixis and ecological and topographical variables, as well as variables underlying differentiation between apomictic and sexual lineages. I find that ecological variables associated with apomixis are largely in congruence with the hypothesis of geographic parthenogenesis, and that geographic parthenogenesis is likely driven by the consequences of interspecific hybridization. We also find that apomixis is linked with disturbance and slope, with apomicts occurring in flatter locations than sexuals.

In Chapter 3, I use a large-scale field experiment comprising three years of data from two cohorts of sexual and asexual lineages to compare fitness between these two groups. I find that, despite herbivory levels that are much higher in apomicts than sexuals, apomictic fitness is consistently higher than sexual. Viability selection strongly favors apomicts, which results in a total fitness advantage for apomicts, despite variable fecundity selection. Selection varies in intensity between cohorts and among gardens. The results of a complementary greenhouse experiment show that the effects of herbivory differ by reproductive mode. Together, these experiments suggest that Red Queen dynamics may contribute to the coexistence of sex and asex in this group.

In Chapter 4, I use inter- and intraspecific F2 crosses to conduct a greenhouse study and a field experiment to explore the effects of hybridization and heterozygosity on fitness. I find that heterozygosity is favored in the field, with viability selection strongly favoring outcrossed over inbred lineages. However, hybridization results in lower survival, reproduction, and total fitness of interspecific F2 crosses, although hybrids that do reproduce produce more fruits than selfed parental lineages of both species, resulting in fecundity selection for hybrids. It is clear that the benefits of apomixis are due to hybridization, as hybrids are less fit overall. Evidence for both heterosis and outbreeding depression, dependent on lineage and on trait, are found in the field; these phenomena are not clearly associated with geographic distance between parental populations. Ongoing SNP genotyping will facilitate assessment of heterozygosity-fitness correlations as well as correlation of fitness and heterozygosity.

This dissertation investigates the processes of hybridation, polyploidy, and apomixis and their roles in the evolution of myriopterid ferns. First, I examine patterns of hybridization in members of the Cheilanthes yavapensis complex using a suite of techiniques, ranging from molecules to morphology--including isozymes, spore measurements, and molecular phylogenetics based on chloroplast and nuclear DNA markers--to elucidate relationships in this notorious group of ferns. Second, I utilize the rules of traditional taxonomy set by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature to recircucmscribe and resurrect the genus Myriopteris from within cheilanthoid ferns. This revised classification is bolstered by results from my molecular phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequence data in the subsequent chapter. Then, using morphological and cytological analyses, I examine the evolution of indument, leaf and rachis shape, vernation, chromosome number, and reproductive mode across the myriopterid tree. In my concluding chapter I develop microsatellite markers for the apomictic triploid, M. lindheiemeri, and explore whether premeiotic chromosome duplication facilitates the production of genetically distinct offspring in this otherwise asexual lineage.