Title
Occurrence of apomictic conspecifics and ecological preferences rather than colonization history govern the geographic distribution of sexual Potentilla puberula
Author
Flavia Domizia Nardi
Department of Forest Genetics, Austrian Research Centre for Forests
... show all
Abstract
The geographic distribution of sexual-apomictic taxa (i.e., comprising individuals usually reproducing either sexually or asexually via seeds) is traditionally thought to be driven by their ecological preferences and colonization histories. Where sexuals and apomicts get into contact with each other, competitive and reproductive interactions can interfere with these factors, an aspect which hitherto received little attention in biogeographic studies. We disentangled and quantified the relative effects of the three factors on the distribution of tetraploid sexuals in Potentilla puberula in a latitudinal transect through the Eastern European Alps, in which they are codistributed with penta-, hepta-, and octoploid apomictic conspecifics. Effects were explored by means of binomial generalized linear regression models combining a single with a multiple predictor approach. Postglacial colonization history was inferred from population genetic variation (AFLPs and cpDNA) and quantified using a cost distance metric. The study was based on 235 populations, which were purely sexual, purely apomictic, or of mixed reproductive mode. The occurrence of apomicts explained most of the variation in the distribution of sexuals (31%). Specifically, the presence of sexual tetraploids was negatively related to the presence of each of the three apomictic cytotypes. Effects of ecological preferences were substantial too (7% and 12% of the total variation explained by ecological preferences alone, or jointly with apomicts’ occurrence, respectively). In contrast, colonization history had negligible effects on the occurrence of sexuals. Taken together, our results highlight the potentially high impact of reproductive interactions on the geographic distribution of sexual and apomictic conspecifics and that resultant mutual exclusion interrelates to ecological differentiation, a situation potentially promoting their local coexistence.
Keywords
apomixisecological preferencesEuropean Alpsgeographic distributionpostglacial colonizationreproductive interference
Object type
Language
English [eng]
Persistent identifier
https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:1359629
Appeared in
Title
Ecology and Evolution
Volume
10
Issue
14
ISSN
2045-7758
Issued
2020
From page
7306
To page
7319
Publisher
Wiley
Date issued
2020
Access rights
Rights statement
© 2020 The Authors
University of Vienna | Universitätsring 1 | 1010 Vienna | T +43-1-4277-0