Abstract
Castanopsis × kuchugouzhui Huang et Y. T. Chang was recorded in Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae (FRPS) as a hybrid species on Yuelushan mountain, but it is treated as a hybrid between Castanopsis sclerophylla (Lindl.) Schott. and Castanopsis tibetana Hance in Flora of China. After a thorough investigation on Yuelushan mountain, we found a population of C. sclerophylla and one individual of C. × kuchugouzhui, but no living individual of C. tibetana. We collected C. × kuchugouzhui, and we sampled 42 individuals of C. sclerophylla from Yuelushan and Xiushui and 43 individuals of C. tibetana from Liangyeshan and Xiushui. We used chloroplast DNA sequences and 29 nuclear microsatellite markers to investigate if C. × kuchugouzhui is a natural hybrid between C. sclerophylla and C. tibetana. The chloroplast haplotype analysis showed that C. × kuchugouzhui shared haplotype H2 with C. sclerophylla on Yuelushan. The STRUCTURE analysis identified two distinct genetic pools that corresponded well to C. sclerophylla and C. tibetana, revealing the genetic admixture of C. × kuchugouzhui. Furthermore, the NewHybrids analysis suggested that C. × kuchugouzhui is an F2 hybrid between C. sclerophylla and C. tibetana. Our results confirm that C. × kuchugouzhui recorded in FRPS is a rare hybrid between C. sclerophylla and C. tibetana.
Highlights
Hybridization is a process through which there is interbreeding of individuals from two genetically distinct populations or species [1]
A large number of studies showed that natural hybridization is ubiquitous in different taxa [3,4,5,6], and it plays a significant role in generating genetic diversity, even the origin of new ecotypes or species [7,8,9,10]
Administration Bureau and Hunan Normal University, this C. × kuchugouzhui is more than 100 years old and it is the same individual reported by Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae (FRPS)
Summary
Hybridization is a process through which there is interbreeding of individuals from two genetically distinct populations or species [1]. A large number of studies showed that natural hybridization is ubiquitous in different taxa [3,4,5,6], and it plays a significant role in generating genetic diversity, even the origin of new ecotypes or species [7,8,9,10]. Research on natural hybridization has become a hot spot in the field of plant systematics and evolution in recent years [11,12,13]. The morphological characteristics of natural hybrids are usually intermediate or more similar to one of their parents, and they form a gradually morphological transition that often causes the blurred and indistinguishable boundary of the species [14]. Chloroplast DNA is uniparentally inherited (maternal inheritance in most angiosperm) and nuclear DNA is biparentally inherited; a comparative analysis of nuclear DNA and chloroplast DNA would provide complementary and often
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