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Morphological and genetic variation of highly endangered Bromus species and the status of these Neolithic weeds in Central Europe

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Abstract

Many Central European weeds were introduced in conjunction with increasing agricultural activities during the Neolithic period. Others likely originated in situ during crop domestication and selection. Among the European weeds occurring primarily in cereal fields are three tetraploid members of the genus Bromus (Poaceae), Bromus secalinus L. associated with rye (Secale cereale), and B. grossus Desf. ex DC. and B. bromoideus (Lej.) Crép. both occurring with spelt (Triticum aestivum spp. spelta) and other winter cereals. All three species may have had their diploid ancestors in the Near and Middle East, but have apparently evolved in Europe. Bromus grossus and B. bromoideus are highly endangered and the former is designated as a European Union Flora–Fauna Habitat Directive target species, while the latter is extinct in the wild. In contrast B. secalinus has successfully spread worldwide. In this study, we compared morphological and genetic variation among the three species to clarify morphological uncertainties and their genetic distinctiveness. It is shown that B. bromoideus has evolved from within the B. grossus gene pool. It has been extirpated from the wild and is now only cultivated in a few botanical gardens, such as at Meise and Heidelberg. In addition we also hypothesize that B. secalinus evolved from B. grossus.

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Acknowledgments

We thank several anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier versions of the manuscript and Anja Landau for support with AFLP analysis. In particular major editorial input from the handling editor, Walter Durka, has been greatly acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) Heidelberg, Biodiversity and Plant Systematics, Heidelberg University, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Marcus A. Koch, Nathanael Meyer & Florian Michling

  2. Department of Botany, The State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart (SMNS), 70191, Stuttgart, Germany

    Martin Engelhardt & Mike Thiv

  3. Institute of Botany, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, 1180, Vienna, Austria

    Karl-Georg Bernhardt

Authors
  1. Marcus A. Koch
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  2. Nathanael Meyer
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  3. Martin Engelhardt
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  6. Florian Michling
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Correspondence to Marcus A. Koch.

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Additional information

Handling editor: Walter Durka.

Electronic supplementary material

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Information on Electronic Supplementary Material

Online Resource 1. Complete list of accessions analysed.

Online Resource 2. Detailed morphological dataset.

Online Resource 3. Scores and means of individual/accession-based measurements.

Online Resource 4. Results of the principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) of morphometric characters from the complete dataset.

Online Resource 5. AFLP scoring table.

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Koch, M.A., Meyer, N., Engelhardt, M. et al. Morphological and genetic variation of highly endangered Bromus species and the status of these Neolithic weeds in Central Europe. Plant Syst Evol 302, 515–525 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-016-1279-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-016-1279-5

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