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Apomixis in the interspecific triploid hybrid fern Cornopteris christenseniana (Woodsiaceae)

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Abstract

Cornopteris christenseniana is a "sterile" interspecific triploid hybrid of diploid C. crenulatoserrulata and tetraploid C. decurrenti-alata. Morphological and cytological studies show that, of 41 young plants of Cornopteris that have been propagated naturally in the Fern Garden of the Botanical Gardens, University of Tokyo, 30 plants are the sterile C. christenseniana, 10 are fertile C. decurrenti-alata and 1, fertile C. crenulatoserrulata. This proportion supports the view that the young plants of C. christenseniana are derived from spores of reproductively mature plants of the species cultivated. Cytogenetic observations and culture experiments show that C. christenseniana produces normal spores in various proportions in some sporogenetic pathways that are aberrant from the ordinary process in sexual and apomictic ferns. Under culture conditions, normal spores germinate in rough proportion to the frequency of normal spores, and sporophytes are apogamously produced in rough proportion to the frequency of spore germination. As a whole, the rates of spore germination and apogamous sporophyte development vary according to the specific plant. Taken together, these observations suggest that C. christenseniana is an incipient apomict.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Messrs. Y. Horii, S. Kobayashi, S. Mitani, N. Sagawa, Y. Saito, K. Seto, T. Suzuki, S. Tsutsui, S. Waku, and M. Yamashita for their help during our field work and for providing living material. Our special thanks are due to Mr. N. Nakato for technical assistance and Dr. S.-J. Lin for her useful suggestions. We are also grateful to Mr. K. Hirai who took care of the living plants. This study was in part supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, 7–3–1 Hongo, Tokyo 113–0033, Japan

    Chan-Ho Park & Masahiro Kato

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  1. Chan-Ho Park
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  2. Masahiro Kato
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Correspondence to Chan-Ho Park.

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Park, CH., Kato, M. Apomixis in the interspecific triploid hybrid fern Cornopteris christenseniana (Woodsiaceae). J Plant Res 116, 93–103 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-003-0081-y

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