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Abstract Detail



Pteridological Section/AFS

Sessa, Emily Butler [1], Vicent, Maria [2], Gabriel y Galán, José María [2].

Exploring potential asymmetric hybridization in a Mediterranean fern complex: the Asplenium obovatum group.

Reticulate evolution, including hybridization and polyploidy, are well known in ferns and common in the genus Asplenium. Asplenium is one of the largest fern genera, with more than 700 species worldwide. In Europe, it includes ca. 40 species, making it one of the richest European fern genera, and half of these taxa are thought to be polyploids. All European Asplenium are relatively small ferns with high substrate specificity, and many are widely distributed but restricted locally to rock outcrops that meet their habitat requirements. Several polyploid complexes have been identified and studied previously in European Asplenium, including the well-known A. monanthes and A. trichomanes complexes. In these complexes, the same species has been observed to act as the chloroplast donor in all crossings, and a similar trend has been observed in other fern genera. In contrast, recent studies in Polypodium and Dryopteris have uncovered evidence of asymmetric hybridization, in which the identity of the maternal and paternal progenitors is not constant for a given hybrid species. If asymmetric hybridization has occurred in conjunction with whole genome duplication, then by definition the resulting polyploids have had multiple origins, a phenomenon which has numerous ecological and genetic implications for polyploid species. In the western Mediterranean basin, diploid Asplenium obovatum is thought to have produced at least three derivative taxa via allopolypoid hybridization with other diploids. We investigated the origins of these polyploids, which include A. billotii, A. foreziense, and A. balearicum, and the related A. adiantum-nigrum, in order to determine whether there is evidence from chloroplast markers for asymmetric hybridization in any members of this complex.


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1 - University Of Florida, Department of Biology, Box 118525, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA
2 - Universidad Complutense, Departamento de Biología Vegetal I, Facultad de Biología, Madrid, 28040, Spain

Keywords:
Polyploidy
hybridization
reticulate evolution
speciation
rockferns.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 10
Location: Salon 20/The Shaw Conference Centre
Date: Monday, July 27th, 2015
Time: 10:15 AM
Number: 10001
Abstract ID:302
Candidate for Awards:Edgar T. Wherry award


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