Genome size inheritance in intraspecific crosses within diploid and within tetraploid plants of Festuca pallens varying in genome size
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2009 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | International conference on polyploidy, hybridization and biodiversity. Program and abstracts. |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | část sborníku s abstrakty posterů |
| Field | Botany |
| Keywords | grasses; genome size evolution; adaptivity; polyploidy |
| Description | Intraspecific variation in genome size is one of important phenomena making possible to study early phases of genome evolution in species. Compared to genomic methods, measurement of genome size by flow cytometry is fast and cheap, and may cover hundreds of plants, as needed in any study of micro-evolutionary processes in natural populations. By the study of these processes, a special attention is paid to the heritability of a newly appearing character which determinates its survival and establishment in a population or further in a separate species. We tested the inheritance of genome size by reciprocal crosses between diploid (10 pairs) and between tetraploid (10 pairs) plants of Festuca pallens (Poaceae) differing in genome size (not caused by the presence of B-chromosomes). We have shown that differences in genome size within species do not constitute a reproduction barrier. The progeny of some maternal plants was shown to significantly vary in genome size (up to 1.081-fold, and even if the parental genome sizes were similar), which indicates that some variation in genome size is probably produced during the gametogenesis. In reciprocal crosses of diploid plants, the genome size found in progenies ranged between the sizes of parents, and only occasionally a weak maternal effect was detected. In the progenies from crosses between tetraploid plants, significantly higher variation in genome size was observed, regularly exceeding the range of parental genome sizes. Our data indicate a very weak inheritance and easy induction of genome size variation in Festuca pallens, which implies that the establishment of a population (or possibly also of a new species) with different genome size may be a result of a random event (e.g., bottleneck or founder effect) rather than a result of an adaptive process. In this respect, a stronger adaptivity effect may be assumed in diploids. |
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