Identification and characterization of Gypsophila paniculata color morphs in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, MI, USA.

Marisa L Yang,Charlyn G Partridge,Emma Rice,Hailee Leimbach-Maus

doi:10.7717/peerj.7100

Marisa L Yang, Charlyn G Partridge + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7100

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Abstract

BackgroundGypsophila paniculata (baby’s breath) is an invasive species found throughout much of the northwest United States and western Canada. Recently, plants exhibiting a different color morphology were identified within the coastal dunes along eastern Lake Michigan. The common baby’s breath (G. paniculata) typically produces stems that are purple in color (purple morph), while the atypical morph has stems that are green-yellow (green-yellow morph). The purpose of this study was to characterize these newly identified morphs and determine if they are genetically distinct species from the common baby’s breath in order to assess whether alternative management strategies should be employed to control these populations.MethodsWe sequenced two chloroplast regions, ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase gene (rbcL), and maturase K (matK), and one nuclear region, internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2), from the purple morphs and green-yellow morphs collected from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, MI, USA (SBDNL). Sequences were aligned to reference sequences from other Gypsophila species obtained from the Barcode of Life Database and GenBank databases. We also collected seeds from wild purple morph and wild green-yellow morph plants in SBDNL. We grew the seeds in a common garden setting and characterized the proportion of green-yellow individuals produced from the two color morphs after 5-months of growth.ResultsPhylogenetic analyses based upon rbcL, matK, and ITS2 regions suggest that the two color morphs are not distinct species and they both belong to G. paniculata. Seeds collected from wild green-yellow morphs produced a significantly higher proportion of green-yellow individuals compared to the number produced by seeds collected from wild purple morphs. However, seeds collected from both color morphs produced more purple morphs than green-yellow morphs.DiscussionBased upon these results, we propose that the two color morphs are variants of G. paniculata. Given the significant difference in the number of green-yellow morphs produced from the seeds of each morph type, we also suggest that this color difference has some genetic basis. We propose that current management continue to treat the two color morphs in a similar manner in terms of removal to prevent the further spread of this species.

Highlights

The Great Lakes sand dunes comprise the most extensive freshwater dune complex in the world, stretching over 1,000 km2 in Michigan alone
Phylogenetic analyses based upon ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase gene (rbcL), maturase K (matK), and internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) regions suggest that the two color morphs are not distinct species and they both belong to G. paniculata
Our results indicate that the green-yellow morph identified in SBDNL is not a genetically distinct species from the common purple found throughout SBDNL

Summary

Introduction

The Great Lakes sand dunes comprise the most extensive freshwater dune complex in the world, stretching over 1,000 km in Michigan alone. While many of the vulnerable and endangered plant species in these areas are seed limited, (e.g., Pitcher’s thistle produces approximately 50-300 seeds per plant total or ‘per lifetime’ (Bevill et al, 1999)), baby’s breath can produce up to 14,000 seeds per plant annually (Stevens, 1957), effectively outcompeting native species in terms of overall yield. This has led to baby’s breath composing approximately 50-80% of the ground cover in some areas (Karamanski, 2000; Emery et al, 2013). The copyright holder for this preprint It is made available under

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