Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Genome size variation among common dandelion accessions informs their mode of reproduction and suggests the absence of sexual diploids in North America

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Plant Systematics and Evolution Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Apomixis is the ability of plants to produce asexual seeds, which are clones of the mother plant. The phenomenon of apomixis is tightly linked to ploidy, where diploids lack apomixis and reproduce sexually, while higher ploidy levels can exhibit apomixis. Taraxacum F.H.Wigg. species (dandelions) commonly exhibit apomixis; however, only limited studies have evaluated genome size variation of the iconic weedy dandelion, Taraxacum officinale F.H.Wigg. (common dandelion), particularly in North America. To evaluate the ploidy and reproductive biology of common dandelion, we created a global collection, with an emphasis on North America and determined genome size by evaluating seeds with flow cytometry. A total of 635 accessions were screened, and with the exception of two accessions from Germany and Austria, all were found to exclusively contain polyploid seed. The mode of reproduction of a sample of 96 of these accessions was observed by conducting emasculations. Our results indicate that the diploid, sexual cytotype of common dandelion may be absent in North America, while diploids were found in previously described areas of Central Europe. This suggests that the clonal lineages of common dandelion in North America may largely be derivative from apomictic plants introduced from abroad. Furthermore, if all North American common dandelion is apomictic, it may be unreceptive to pollen, which may isolate it from other dandelion species and inform the potential for gene flow.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andersson TN, Milberg P (1998) Weed flora and the relative importance of site, crop, crop rotation, and nitrogen. Weed Sci 46:30–38

  • Bennett MD, Smith JB, Smith RIL (1982) DNA amounts of angiosperms from the Antarctic and South Georgia. Environm Exp Bot 22:307–318. doi:10.1016/0098-8472(82)90023-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowers JE (1990) Natural rubber-producing plants for the United States. National Agricultural Library, Beltsville

  • Brock MT (2004) The potential for genetic assimilation of a native dandelion species, Taraxacum ceratophorum (Asteraceae), by the exotic congener T. officinale. Amer J Bot 91:656–663. doi:10.3732/ajb.91.5.656

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • den Nijs JCM, Kirschner J, Štěpánek J, van der Hulst A (1990) Distribution of diploid sexual plants of Taraxacum sect. Ruderalia in east-central Europe, with special reference to Czechoslovakia. Pl Syst Evol 170:71–84. doi:10.1007/BF00937850

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doležel J, Bartoš J (2005) Plant DNA flow cytometry and estimation of nuclear genome size. Ann Bot (Oxford) 95:99–110. doi:10.1093/aob/mci005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doll R (1982) Grundriß der evolution der gattung Taraxacum Zinn. Feddes Repert 93:481–624. doi:10.1002/fedr.19820930702

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Free JB (1968) Dandelion as a competitor to fruit trees for bee visits. J Appl Ecol 5:169–178. doi:10.2307/2401281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galbraith DW, Harkins KR, Maddox JM, Ayres NM, Sharma DP, Firoozabady E (1983) Rapid flow cytometric analysis of the cell cycle in intact plant tissues. Science 220:1049–1051. doi:10.1126/science.220.4601.1049

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Galbraith DW, Lambert GM, Macas J, Dolezel J (2001) Analysis of nuclear DNA content and ploidy in higher plants. In: Robinson JP, Darzynkiewicz Z, Dean PN, Dressler LG, Orfao A, Rabinovitch PS, Stewart CC, Tanke HJ, Wheeless LL (eds) Current protocols in cytometry. Wiley, New York, pp 7.6.1–7.6.22. doi:10.1002/0471142956.cy0706s02

    Google Scholar 

  • Gyenes V, Béres I (2006) The allelopathic potential of common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale WEB.). J Pl Diseases Protect New Ser 20:471–478

    Google Scholar 

  • Integrated Taxonomic Information System online database (2017). Available at: http://www.itis.gov. Accessed 28 Jan 2017

  • Kapusta G, Krausz RF (1993) Weed control and yield are equal in conventional, reduced-, and no-tillage soybean (Glycine max) after 11 years. Weed Technol 7:443–451. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3987627

  • Kirschner J, Štěpánek J (1996) Modes of speciation and evolution of the sections in Taraxacum. Folia Geobot 31:415–426. doi:10.1007/BF02815386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirschner J, Štěpánek J (1998) A revision of Taraxacum sect. Piesis (Compositae). Folia Geobot 33:391–414. doi:10.1007/BF02803642

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kitashiba H, Li F, Hirakawa H, Kawanabe T, Zou Z, Hasegawa Y, Tonosaki K, Shirasawa S, Fukushima A, Yokoi S, Takahata Y, Kakizaki T, Ishida M, Okamoto S, Sakamoto K, Shirasawa K, Tabata S, Nishio T (2014) Draft sequences of the radish (Raphanus sativus L.) genome. DNA Res 21:481–490. doi:10.1093/dnares/dsu014

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Luc Brouillet (2006) Taraxacum. In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee (eds) 1993 + , Flora of North America North of Mexico. 20 + vols. New York and Oxford. Vol. 19, 20 and 21, pp 8, 215, 239, 240, 241, 242. Available at: http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=132314. Accessed 28 Jan 2017

  • Lyman JC, Ellstrand NC (1984) Clonal diversity in Taraxacum officinale (compositae), an apomict. Heredity 53:1–10. doi:10.1038/hdy.1984.58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mártonfiová L (2006) Possible pathways of the gene flow in Taraxacum Sect. Ruderalia. Folia Geobot 41:183–201. doi:10.1007/BF02806478

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menken SBJ, Smit E, den Nijs JCM (1995) Genetical population structure in plants: gene flow between diploid sexual and triploid asexual dandelions (Taraxacum Section Ruderalia). Evolution (Lancaster) 49:1108–1118. doi:10.2307/2410435

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mooibroek H, Cornish K (2000) Alternative sources of natural rubber. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 53:355–365. doi:10.1007/s002530051627

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team (2013) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna. Available at: http://www.R-project.org/. Accessed 18 May 2016

  • Richards AJ (1970) Hybridization in Taraxacum. New Phytol 69:1103–1121. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.1970.tb02492.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shibaike H, Akiyama H, Uchiyama S, Kasai K, Morita T (2002) Hybridization between European and Asian dandelions (Taraxacum section Ruderalia and section Mongolica). J Pl Res 115:321–328. doi:10.1007/s10265-002-0045-7

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sliwinska E, Zielinska E, Jedrzejczyk I (2005) Are seeds suitable for flow cytometric estimation of plant genome size? Cytometry A 64A:72–79. doi:10.1002/cyto.a.20122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sliwinska E, Pisarczyk I, Pawlik A, Galbraith DW (2009) Measuring genome size of desert plants using dry seeds. Botany (Ottawa) 87:127–135. doi:10.1139/B08-120

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Solbrig OT (1971) The population biology of dandelions. Amer Sci 59:686–694

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart-Wade SM, Neumann S, Collins LL, Boland GJ (2002) The biology of Canadian weeds. 117. Taraxacum officinale G. H. Weber ex Wiggers. Canad J Pl Sci 82:825–853. doi:10.4141/P01-010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suda J, Krahulcová A, Trávníek P, Krahulec F (2006) Ploidy level versus DNA ploidy level: an appeal for consistent terminology. Taxon 55:447–450. doi:10.2307/25065591

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Baarlen P, van Dijk PJ, Hoekstra RF, de Jong JH (2000) Meiotic recombination in sexual diploid and apomictic triploid dandelions (Taraxacum officinale L.). Genome 43:827–835

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van Baarlen P, de Jong HJ, van Dijk PJ (2002) Comparative cyto-embryological investigations of sexual and apomictic dandelions (Taraxacum) and their apomictic hybrids. Sexual Pl Reprod 15:31–38. doi:10.1007/s00497-002-0132-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Dijk PJ (2003) Ecological and evolutionary opportunities of apomixis: insights from Taraxacum and Chondrilla. Philos Trans, Ser B 358:1113–1121. doi:10.1098/rstb.2003.1302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Dijk P, van Damme J (2000) Apomixis technology and the paradox of sex. Trends Pl Sci 5:81–84. doi:10.1016/S1360-1385(99)01545-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Dijk P, de Jong HJ, Vijverberg K, Biere A (2009) An apomixis-gene’s view on dandelions. In: Schön I, Martens K, van Dijk P (eds) Lost Sex: The Evolutionary Biology of Parthenogenesis. Springer, Netherlands, pp. 475–493. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-2770-2_22

  • van Soest JL (1958) Taraxacum Sectio Erythrosperma Dahlstedt Em. Lindberg F. in North-America. Acta Bot Neerl 7:627–628. doi:10.1111/j.1438-8677.1958.tb00635.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Záveský L, Jarolímová V, Štěpánek J (2005) Nuclear DNA content variation within the genus Taraxacum (asteraceae). Folia Geobot 40:91–104

  • Zhang Y, Iaffaldano BJ, Xie W, Blakeslee JJ, Cornish K (2015) Rapid and hormone-free Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated transformation in rubber producing dandelions Taraxacum kok-saghyz and T. brevicorniculatum. Industr Crops Prod 66:110–118. doi:10.1016/j.indcrop.2014.12.013

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Y, Iaffaldano BJ, Zhuang X, Cardina J, Cornish K (2017) Chloroplast genome resources and molecular markers differentiate rubber dandelion species from weedy relatives. BMC Pl Biol 17:34. doi:10.1186/s12870-016-0967-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would first like to thank all those who contributed germplasm to this survey, as well as Catherine Herms, who helped assemble the accessions. We are also grateful to Kelsey Redick and Natalie Gustafson for help processing samples. The United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch project 230837 partially funded this research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University, 1680 Madison Avenue, Wooster, OH, 44691, USA

    Brian J. Iaffaldano, Yingxiao Zhang, John Cardina & Katrina Cornish

Authors
  1. Brian J. Iaffaldano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yingxiao Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. John Cardina
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Katrina Cornish
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katrina Cornish.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Handling editor: Martin Lysak.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (XLSX 46 kb)

Information on Electronic Supplementary Material

Information on Electronic Supplementary Material

Online Resource 1. Common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) collecting locations and estimated genome sizes.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Iaffaldano, B.J., Zhang, Y., Cardina, J. et al. Genome size variation among common dandelion accessions informs their mode of reproduction and suggests the absence of sexual diploids in North America. Plant Syst Evol 303, 719–725 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-017-1402-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-017-1402-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation