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Genetic relationships among three native North-American Mahonia species, invasive Mahonia populations from Europe, and commercial cultivars

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Abstract

Horticulture is one of the most important pathways for plant invasion. We used microsatellite markers to reveal the impact of plant breeding on Mahonia aquifolium, an invasive ornamental shrub. Since it was bred by hybridization with the related species M. repens and M. pinnata, we compared populations of the three native species, various commercial cultivars and invasive populations. Invasive populations and cultivars were genetically differentiated from the native groups, but differences did not result from genetic bottlenecks. In cultivars but not in invasive populations, we proved genes from M. pinnata. No significant amount of M. repens genes were found in cultivars and invasive populations, but this result has to be viewed with caution because of the close relationship between native M. aquifolium and M. repens. We conclude that the evolution of invasive Mahonia populations was a result of restriction of gene pool during introduction, secondary release, and artificial selection, in combination with an increase of genetic diversity by plant breeders and by extensive gene flow.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Verena Schmidt, Christina Belle, Thomas Bunge, Vera Draba, Michael Beckmann, Claudia Paschke and Dorit Raudnitschka for their help in collecting berries and rearing seedlings. Further on, we thank Klaus Hempel and Antje Thondorf for their technical support and Ina Geier and Martina Herrmann for help in the laboratory. We thank all colleagues who gave us comments on invasive Mahonia populations and thanks to all those who sampled seeds, notably Alisa Ramakrishnan, Daniel Jones, Daniel Prati, David W. Inouye, Heather Davis, Jennifer Williams, Mark Schwarzlaender, Mark van Kleunen, Mary Bricker, Petr Pysek, Rosemarie De Clerck-Floate, Ruth Hufbauer, Shanna Carney and Steven Rauth. Many thanks to several botanical gardens and tree nurseries which provided cultivars and many thanks to Hans-Joachim Albrecht, Heribert Reif, Wilfried Müller-Platz and Wout Kromhout for their support and information about Mahonia cultivars. The study was financially supported by the BioTeam program of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, project ID 01LM0206.

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  1. Department of Community Ecology, UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Theodor-Lieser-Strasse 4, 06120, Halle, Germany

    Christel A. Ross, Harald Auge & Walter Durka

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  1. Christel A. Ross
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  2. Harald Auge
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  3. Walter Durka
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Correspondence to Christel A. Ross.

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Ross, C.A., Auge, H. & Durka, W. Genetic relationships among three native North-American Mahonia species, invasive Mahonia populations from Europe, and commercial cultivars. Plant Syst Evol 275, 219–229 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-008-0066-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-008-0066-3

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