Abstract
Hybridisation in the wild between closely related species is a common mechanism of speciation in the plant kingdom and, in particular, in the grass family. Here we explore the potential for natural hybridisation in Stipa (one of the largest genera in Poaceae) between genetically distant species at their distribution edges in Mountains of Central Asia using integrative taxonomy. Our research highlights the applicability of classical morphological and genome reduction approaches in studies on wild plant species. The obtained results revealed a new nothospecies, Stipa × lazkovii, which exhibits intermediate characters to S. krylovii and S. bungeana. A high-density DArTseq assay disclosed that S. × lazkovii is an F1 hybrid, and established that the plastid and mitochondrial DNA was inherited from S. bungeana. In addition, molecular markers detected a hybridisation event between morphologically and genetically distant species S. bungeana and probably S. glareosa. Moreover, our findings demonstrated an uncertainty on the taxonomic status of S. bungeana that currently belongs to the section Leiostipa, but it is genetically closer to S. breviflora from the section Barbatae. Finally, we noticed a discrepancy between the current molecular data with the previous findings on S. capillata and S. sareptana.
Highlights
Hybridisation in the wild between closely related species is a common mechanism of speciation in the plant kingdom and, in particular, in the grass family
The two dimensional plot revealed the overlapping of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) belonging to S. breviflora and S. bungeana, whereas OTUs of S. sareptana are slightly overlapped with OTUs of S. krylovii and S. capillata (Fig. 2a)
Many interspecific hybrids have been described in the genus Stipa[43,57,58,59], so far only a single molecular investigation was performed to verify the origin of one such species, Stipa × heptapotamica[61] that appeared to be a hybrid between genetically closely related s pecies[65,66]
Summary
Hybridisation in the wild between closely related species is a common mechanism of speciation in the plant kingdom and, in particular, in the grass family. Our research highlights the applicability of classical morphological and genome reduction approaches in studies on wild plant species. Molecular markers detected a hybridisation event between morphologically and genetically distant species S. bungeana and probably S. glareosa. Hybridisation in the wild between closely related species is a common mechanism of speciation in the plant kingdom[1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Were morphologically distant and affiliated to different sections Leiostipa and Subbarbatae Tzvelev[41,58,64], genetically they are closely r elated[65,66] and able to hybridise with each other[61] Its parental species Stipa richteriana Kar. & Kir and S. lessingiana Trin. & Rupr. were morphologically distant and affiliated to different sections Leiostipa and Subbarbatae Tzvelev[41,58,64], genetically they are closely r elated[65,66] and able to hybridise with each other[61]
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