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Formation of a hybrid triploid agamosperm on a sexual diploid plant: evidence from progeny tests in Taraxacum platycarpum Dahlst.

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Abstract

Agamospermous dandelions of hybrid origin between a native sexual diploid species (Taraxacum platycarpum Dahlst. or T. japonicum Koidz.) and an alien agamospermous triploid [T. officinale Weber and T. laevigatum (Willd.) DC.] are now widely distributed throughout mainland Japan. These hybrid dandelions are known to be genetically variable. We hypothesized that this variability is maintained by repeated ongoing hybridization, based on the fact that triploid dandelions not only produce seeds agamospermously, but also produce some functional pollen grains that are able to sire seeds of sexual dandelions. To test this hypothesis, we examined whether heads of Japanese diploid dandelions produce new hybrid seeds after fertilization by pollen from triploid agamosperms under field conditions. One of the 430 tested plants grown from sexual dandelion seeds had morphological and molecular characteristics, which are consistent with a hybrid origin. The plant formed a hybrid surrounded by many individuals having recurved involucral bracts, in which frequency of T. officinale was very low (3.5 %). Cytological data and bagging experiments demonstrate triploidy and asexual seed production of the hybrid. Taken together, these results supported that the new hybrid is probably derived from a backcross of a hybrid to the native sexual species. Our findings provide evidence for the evolution of a new agamosperm through interspecific hybridization as a contemporary population process.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Makiko Mimura for her valuable advice; to Ikumi Umeda and other members of the Department of Biology, Aichi University of Education, for their kind help in fieldwork; to Firouzeh Javadi and the reviewers for editorial comments. This work was funded in part by the Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows 24.4061.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Kyushu University, 6-10-1, Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 812-8581, Japan

    Chika Mitsuyuki & Tetsukazu Yahara

  2. Department of Botany, National Museum of Nature and Science, 4-1-1 Amakubo, Tsukuba, 305-0005, Japan

    Akihiko Hoya

  3. Department of Biological Safety, National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, 3-1-3 Kannondai, Tsukuba, 305-8604, Japan

    Hiroyuki Shibaike

  4. Department of Biology, Aichi University of Education, 1 Hirosawa, Igaya-cho, Kariya, Aichi, 448-8542, Japan

    Mikio Watanabe

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  1. Chika Mitsuyuki
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  2. Akihiko Hoya
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  3. Hiroyuki Shibaike
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  4. Mikio Watanabe
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  5. Tetsukazu Yahara
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Correspondence to Chika Mitsuyuki.

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Mitsuyuki, C., Hoya, A., Shibaike, H. et al. Formation of a hybrid triploid agamosperm on a sexual diploid plant: evidence from progeny tests in Taraxacum platycarpum Dahlst.. Plant Syst Evol 300, 863–870 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-013-0925-4

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