Population genetic structure and clonal diversity of Allium oleraceum (Amaryllidaceae), a polyploid geophyte with common asexual but variable sexual reproduction

Polyploid species rely on vegetative reproduction more than diploids: a re-examination of the old hypothesis

“…While some comparisons at the intra-specific level failed to find any inter-ploidy differences (e.g. Keeler, 2004;Baldwin and Husband, 2013), others reported greater vegetative reproduction in (high) polyploids as compared with their diploid/lower polyploid counterparts (Eckert et al, 2003;Duchoslav and Sta nkov a, 2015). The only attempt to understand the large-scale pattern was made nearly seven decades ago by Å ke Gustafsson (Gustafsson, 1948).…”

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“…Firstly, common garden experiments and physiological measurements on Central European populations of tetra-, penta-, and hexaploids have generally shown similar competitive ability and photosynthetic capacity (Ježilová et al, 2015) of cytotypes, but also significantly lower interpopulation variation of the studied parameters in hexaploids than in tetra-and pentaploids. Secondly, a study of allozymes revealed more genetically differentiated populations of Central European tetra-and pentaploids, with two-fold higher total and withinpopulation diversity, in comparison with genetically uniform hexaploids (Duchoslav and Staňková, 2015).…”

“…Nevertheless, we cannot rule out that some mixed populations represent the primary zone of contacts between cytotypes or that gene flow between cytotypes occurs. An allozyme study of Czech populations of A. oleraceum (Duchoslav and Staňková, 2015) demonstrated complex patterns of genetic similarity between tetra-, penta-, and hexaploid plants in mixed-ploidy populations, ranging from close to weak relatedness between locally coexisting cytotypes. The identical banding pattern of tetra-and hexaploids observed in two 4x + 6x populations was interpreted as hexaploids having originated in-situ de novo via fusion of unreduced and reduced gametes of tetraploids (Duchoslav and Staňková, 2015).…”

“…An allozyme study of Czech populations of A. oleraceum (Duchoslav and Staňková, 2015) demonstrated complex patterns of genetic similarity between tetra-, penta-, and hexaploid plants in mixed-ploidy populations, ranging from close to weak relatedness between locally coexisting cytotypes. The identical banding pattern of tetra-and hexaploids observed in two 4x + 6x populations was interpreted as hexaploids having originated in-situ de novo via fusion of unreduced and reduced gametes of tetraploids (Duchoslav and Staňková, 2015). However, we believe that a neohexaploid origin in tetraploid populations should be a rare process given the fact that no hexaploid plants were found in tetraploid populations outside the continuous range of hexaploids (Figure 1).…”

Evaluating the Interactive Roles of Soil Nutrients and Polyploidy on Competitive Outcomes of Chamerion Angustifolium

“…This is particularly surprising to us, because the addition of nitrogen had no impact on tetraploid root bud production. In polyploids, asexual reproduction is considered especially advantageous after initial establishment (Whitton et al 2008), and many studies have reported greater apomixis in polyploids relative to diploids (Eckert et al 2003, Duchoslav and Staňková 2015, Herben et al 2017. However, the benefits of clonal growth are not limited to only polyploids.…”