Curran, E.V., Scott, M.S., Olofsson, J.K. et al. (7 more authors) (2022) Hybridization boosts dispersal of two contrasted ecotypes in a grass species. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 289 (1967). 20212491. ISSN 0962-8452
Abstract
Genetic exchanges between closely related groups of organisms with different adaptations have well-documented beneficial and detrimental consequences. In plants, pollen-mediated exchanges affect the sorting of alleles across physical landscapes and influence rates of hybridization. How these dynamics affect the emergence and spread of novel phenotypes remains only partially understood. Here, we use phylogenomics and population genomics to retrace the origin and spread of two geographically overlapping ecotypes of the African grass Alloteropsis angusta. In addition to an ecotype inhabiting wetlands, we report the existence of a previously undescribed ecotype inhabiting Miombo woodlands and grasslands. The two ecotypes are consistently associated with different nuclear groups, which represent an advanced stage of divergence with secondary low-level gene flow. However, the seed-transported chloroplast genomes are consistently shared by distinct ecotypes inhabiting the same region. These patterns suggest that the nuclear genome of one ecotype can enter the seeds of the other via occasional pollen movements with sorting of nuclear groups in subsequent generations. The contrasting ecotypes of A. angusta can thus use each other as a gateway to new locations across a large part of Africa, showing that hybridization can facilitate the geographical dispersal of distinct ecotypes of the same grass species.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Keywords: | Poaceae; dispersal; ecology; gene flow; growth strategies; hybridization |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 02 Feb 2022 09:41 |
Last Modified: | 10 Feb 2023 14:12 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | The Royal Society |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1098/rspb.2021.2491 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:183176 |