Summary1. Flower colour polymorphism is traditionally attributed to pollinator selection although other factors, such as indirect selection on correlated traits, can play an important role. 2. Lysimachia arvensis is a widespread annual species with two colour morphs differing in anthocyanin composition. We explored the hypothesis that colour polymorphism is maintained by selection related to environmental heterogeneity. Morph frequencies and environmental traits were recorded in 51 populations along a wide geographical range. To explore the existence of morph-by-environment interactions, we conducted an experimental study comparing the two morphs under treatments differing in water and light availability. 3. A geographical pattern was found with a negative association between blue frequencies and latitude. The proportion of the blue morph increased with temperature and sunshine hours, but decreased with precipitation. Flowering onset and flower size differed between morphs and scarcely varied across treatments. In contrast, several fitness components such as germination, seedling survival, seedling mass and flower production showed important morph-by-environment interactions. The blue morph showed higher overall male and female fitness in all the treatment combinations excepting in sun-wet conditions where the red morph had higher fitness. 4. Synthesis. Our results indicate that the mechanism of selection on flower colour seems to be related to differences in fitness of both morphs due to abiotic factors. These differences could explain the geographical distribution of flower colour morphs and the maintenance of the colour polymorphism. The marked difference in flowering time between morphs leaves open the potential for assortative mating and speciation in Lysimachia arvensis.

Dianthus broteri shows the highest diversity of cytotypes known to date in the genus Dianthus. Moreover, some cytotypes present remarkable internal genome size variation. The evolution of the complex is discussed in terms of autopolyploidy, with primary and secondary contact zones.

This study proposes a new chromosome fragility index and suggests that genome instability during embryo development may be related to malformations in FA, while DEB-induced chromosome breaks in T cells have no prognostic value for the haematological disease.

We report the phylogeographic pattern of the Patagonian and Subantarctic plant Hypochaeris incana endemic to southeastern South America. We applied amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) analysis to 28 and 32 populations, respectively, throughout its distributional range and assessed ploidy levels using flow cytometry. While cpDNA data suggest repeated or simultaneous parallel colonization of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego by several haplotypes and/or hybridization, AFLPs reveal three clusters corresponding to geographic regions. The central and northern Patagonian clusters (approximately 38-51 degrees S), which are closer to the outgroup, contain mainly tetraploid, isolated and highly differentiated populations with low genetic diversity. To the contrary, the southern Patagonian and Fuegian cluster (approximately 51-55 degrees S) contains mainly diploid populations with high genetic diversity and connected by high levels of gene flow. The data suggest that H. incana originated at the diploid level in central or northern Patagonia, from where it migrated south. All three areas, northern, central and southern, have similar levels of rare and private AFLP bands, suggesting that all three served as refugia for H. incana during glacial times. In southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, the species seems to have expanded its populational system in postglacial times, when the climate became warmer and more humid. In central and northern Patagonia, the populations seem to have become restricted to favourable sites with increasing temperature and decreasing moisture and there was a parallel replacement of diploids by tetraploids in local populations.

To cite this version:M. Arista, R. Berjano, J. Viruel, M. A. Ortiz, M. Talavera, et al.. Uncertain pollination environment promotes the evolution of a stable mixed reproductive system in the self-incompatible Hypochaeris salzmanniana (Asteraceae). Annals of Botany, Oxford University Press (OUP), 2017, 120 (3), pp. 447-456. 10.1093/aob/mcx059. hal-01681643 Uncertain pollination environment promotes the evolution of a stable mixed reproductive system in the self-incompatible Hypochaeris salzmanniana (Asteraceae) Background and aims The transition from outcrossing to selfing is a repeated pattern in angiosperm diversification and according to general theory this transition should occur quickly and mixed reproductive systems should be infrequent. However, a large proportion of flowering plants have mixed reproductive systems, even showing inbreeding depression. Recently, several theoretical studies have shown that mixed mating systems can be stable, but empirical studies supporting these assumptions are still scarce.Methods Hypochaeris salzmanniana, an annual species with populations differing in their self-incompatibility expression, was used as a study case to assess the stability of its mixed reproductive system. Here a descriptive study of the pollination environment was combined with measurements of the stability of the self-incompatibility system, outcrossing rate, reproductive assurance and inbreeding depression in four populations for two consecutive years.Key Results The reproductive system of populations exhibited a geographical pattern: the proportion of plants decreased from west to east. Pollinator environment also varied geographically, being less favourable from west to east. The self-incompatibility expression of some populations changed markedly in only one year. After selfing, progeny was mainly self-compatible, while after outcrossing both self-incompatible and self-compatible plants were produced. In general, both reproductive assurance and high inbreeding depression were found in all populations and years. The lowest values of inbreeding depression were found in 2014 in the easternmost populations, which experienced a marked increase in self-compatibility in 2015.Conclusions The mixed reproductive system of H. salzmanniana seems to be an evolutionarily stable strategy, with selfing conferring reproductive assurance when pollinator attendance is low, but strongly limited by inbreeding depression. The fact that the highest frequencies of self-compatible plants appeared in the environments most unfavourable to pollination suggests that these plants are selected in these sites, although high rates of inbreeding depression should impede the complete loss of self-incompatibility. In H. salzmanniana, year-to-year changes in the frequency of self-incompatible individuals are directly derived from the balance between reproductive assurance and inbreeding depression.