Genetic signatures of long-term evolutionary history in a herbaceous, high-polyploid, clonal plant species in Central Europe

作者：Nora Walden, Мarcus A. Koch · 发表于：Annals of Botany · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1093/aob/mcaf298 · 被引用次数：1 · 研究领域：Genetic diversity and population structure、Chromosomal and Genetic Variations、Evolution and Genetic Dynamics

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Genetic diversity is associated with sexual reproduction and is a driver of plant adaptation and diversification. However, there are also successful but almost exclusively vegetatively reproducing species. Among them is the Eurasian herbaceous woodland species Cardamine bulbifera. Since the Last Glacial Maximum the species expanded as an understory woodland plant in Europe. The dodecaploid species stems from the gene pool of diploid sister species C. bipinnata and C. abchasica from the Caucasus region. We identified a genetically very diverse population in northeastern Austria (the unglaciated Thaya Valley) lacking signatures of contemporary gene flow in which genetic variation most likely stems from ancestral populations. We explored the hypotheses that genetic diversity observed is a remnant of the past reticulate rather than contemporary gene flow. METHODS: We used genetic assignment analysis based on ddRAD data, genetic network analysis and comparisons of the nuclear and plastid gene pools to infer contemporary gene flow in the study area at Thaya Valley. Georeferenced genotypes at the Thaya Valley were assigned to woodland types and spatial distribution of both maternally and biparentally inherited genetic variation from the plastid and nuclear genome was described. KEY RESULTS: We found five specific genetic clusters for C. bulbifera with little evidence for contemporary gene flow among individuals in the Thaya Valley. Genetically admixed individual...