Abstract
The inheritance of phenotypic, genetic and epigenetic traits in hybridization events is difficult to predict, as numerous evolutionary, ecological, and genetic factors can play a crucial role in the process of hybridization. In the middle Adriatic island of Vis, we investigated hybridization between Salvia officinalis and S. fruticosa at morphological, genetic and epigenetic levels. SSR results revealed that hybrid individuals were characterized by diploid set of chromosomes suggesting homoploid hybridization. A well-defined group that mostly comprised of F1 generation individuals was detected. For the majority of analysed morphological characteristics, hybrids were placed in-between parental taxa, while at the same time, values of different genetic parameters were mostly higher in hybrids than in parental species. The results revealed a high contrast in the levels of phenotypic variability and epigenetic excitation between parental taxa. Environmental niche modelling confirmed that in the studied location S. officinalis experiences optimal climatological conditions, while S. fruticosa struggles with unsuitable conditions. Very low levels of gene flow between the parental species were detected. In addition, contrasting levels of epigenetic excitation in the studied groups clearly demonstrated the importance of an epigenetic response to an altered environment and confirmed the trans-generational nature of the epigenetic changes.
Highlights
Introduction of plant species into new areas occurs naturally, but the frequency of this phenomenon has increased dramatically because of human activity during the last few millennia
Results obtained by STRUCTURE for the MSAP dataset were consistent with STRUCTURE results for microsatellite and AFLP analysis as the parental species were well recognized
Moran’s I correlograms revealed a significant autocorrelation of ENM residuals for distances smaller than 150 km or 250 km. Since both species are characterized by relatively small distribution areas that extends in narrow coastal areas, such result was inevitable, because reduction of number of occurrences to avoid ENM residual autocorrelation would lead to insufficiently large data set for this analysis
Summary
Introduction of plant species into new areas occurs naturally, but the frequency of this phenomenon has increased dramatically because of human activity during the last few millennia. As defined by Nieto Feliner et al.[4], homoploid hybrid speciation “is the formation of a new-hybrid-species, independent from its parents, via hybridization with no whole-genome duplication and no increase in ploidy” This definition seems to be straightforward, key aspects of hybridization process are under debate[4,5]. Once an organism finds itself in an altered environment, its genotype can produce numerous phenotypes, of which some will presumably be better adapted to the new ecological conditions This phenomenon, known as phenotypic plasticity, has an integral role in an organism’s attempt to cope with environmental variation and enables plants to respond to such variations within their lifetime[6,7]. Because of the well-organized Greek colony Issa that was founded on the island of Vis in the 4th century BC31–33, it can be assumed that this disjunct population of Greek sage located approximately 500 km from the nearest population of its type is of sub-spontaneous origin rather than being a member of an indigenous flora
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