Maternal effects and ecological divergence in aquatic plants: a case study in natural reciprocal hybrids between Potamogeton perfoliatus and P. wrightii

Abstract

When parental taxa are adapted to different habitats, hybrid genotypes are often highly heterogeneous, such that habitat or ecological factors influence hybrid fate and ecological performance. Trait expression in hybrids is not always intermediate between the parents, but may instead be either parental-like or extreme (transgressive) depending on genetic control of the phenotypes. Maternal effects arising from interspecific interaction between cytoplasmic and nuclear genomes are widely recognized as playing a role in character expression of natural hybrids. Such interaction often leads to hybrid sterility or inviability. When hybrids are viable, however, cytonuclear interaction may contribute to hybrid persistence through its influence on trait expression. To date, maternal influence on hybrid performance has been examined primarily in experimentally produced hybrids, or in natural hybrids without identification of the cross direction owing to difficulty in obtaining species-specific molecular markers. In aquatic plants, many hybrids persist by extensive clonal growth and are important components of aquatic communities. Many such hybrids are known in Potamogeton (pondweeds), the largest aquatic genus. Because Potamogeton species are ecologically highly diverse and maternal lineages are readily distinguished using molecular markers, natural hybrids of Potamogeton are well-suited for studies of maternal effects, especially those affecting vegetative performance. As a case study, we have focused on maternal effects on drought tolerance and depth distribution in the natural hybrid P. ¥ anguillanus derived from the closely related species P. perfoliatus and P. wrightii.

Maternal Effects on Seed and Seedling Phenotypes in Reciprocal F1 Hybrids of the Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)

“…Biotic stimulus can also lead to transgenerational effects as shown by the increase in resistance to Fusarium in progeny of maternal plants of Pinus pinaster exposed to the pathogen (Vivas et al, 2013). Maternal effects have also been observed in reciprocal hybrids of Potamogeton species, which display both, anatomical and physiological differences resembling those between the maternal progenitors (Iida et al, 2013). Similarly, seed size differences in reciprocal hybrids of Pisum have been reported in which the hybrid seeds resemble the maternal seed size (Davies, 1975), a phenomenon observed in many legumes.…”

Morphology and ecological characteristics of Sparganium × longifolium (Typhaceae) in the Central part of European Russia

“…Гибридизация особенно широко распространена среди водных и прибрежно-водных растений (Papchenkov, 2007;Iida et al, 2013). Большое число гибридов отмечено в составе родов Potamogeton L. (Papchenkov, 2007;Kaplan, 2007;Gałosz and Ronikier, 2012;Kaplan and Fehrer, 2013;Iida et al, 2013;Ito et al, 2014;Yang et al, 2016), Nuphar Smith (Padget et al, 1998Arrigo et al, 2016), Nymphaea L. (Nierbauer et al, 2014;Borsch et al, 2014), Carex L. (Wiecław and Koopman, 2013;Więcław and Wilhelm, 2014;Pedersen et al, 2016), Ranunculus L. (Zalewska-Gałosz et al, 2014;Bobrov et al, 2015), Typha L. (Ball and Freeland, 2013;Freeland et al, 2013;Kapitonova et al, 2015). Не явился исключением и род Sparganium L., высокая гибридогенная активность которого отмечена многими исследователями (Rothert, 1910;Nicholls, 1986, 1987;Sulman et al, 2013;Ito et al, 2016).…”

Loss of heterophylly in aquatic plants: not ABA-mediated stress but exogenous ABA treatment induces stomatal leaves in Potamogeton perfoliatus

“…wrightii Morong (= P. malaianus Miq.) grows in shallow freshwater and sometimes on land, while homophyllous P. perfoliatus L. cannot survive on land and grows exclusively in deeper fresh or brackish water (Iida et al 2007 , 2013 ). Because they are closely related, homophyllous species may have the morphogenetic ability to be heterophyllic.…”