Niche Divergence Between Diploid and Autotetraploid Tolmiea1
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AJB Advance Article published on August 9, 2016, as 10.3732/ajb.1600130. The latest version is at http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/doi/10.3732/ajb.1600130 RESEARCH ARTICLE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY Niche divergence between diploid and autotetraploid 1 Tolmiea Clayton J. Visger 2,3,5 , Charlotte C. Germain-Aubrey 3 , Maya Patel3 , Emily B. Sessa 2,4 , Pamela S. Soltis3,4 , and Douglas E. Soltis2-4 PREMISE OF STUDY: Polyploidy is common in eukaryotes and is of major evolutionary importance over both short and long time-scales. Compared to allopolyploids, autopolyploids remain understudied; they are often morphologically cryptic and frequently remain taxonomically unrecognized, although there is increasing recognition of the high frequency of autopolyploidy in angiosperms. While autopolyploidy can serve as an instant speciation mecha- nism, little is known about the ecological consequences of this process. We describe the ecological divergence of a diploid-autotetraploid species pair in Tolmiea . METHODS: We investigated whether abiotic niche divergence has shaped the current allopatric distribution of diploid T. diplomenziesii and its autotetra- ploid derivative, T. menziesii , in the Pacif c Northwest of North America. We employed f eld measures of light availability, as well as niche modeling and a principal component analysis of environmental space. Within a common garden, we also investigated physiological responses to changes in soil moisture. KEY RESULTS: Diploid and autotetraploid Tolmiea inhabit signif cantly dif erent climatic niche spaces. The climatic niche divergence between these two species is best explained by a shift in precipitation availability, and we found evidence of dif ering physiological response to water availability between these species. CONCLUSIONS: We found that spatial segregation of T. diplomenziesii a n d T. menziesii was accompanied by adaptation to changes in climatic regime. Tolmiea menziesii is not a nascent autotetraploid, having persisted long enough to be established throughout the Paci f c Northwest, and therefore both polyploidization and subsequent evolution have contributed to the observed dif erences between T. menziesii and T. diplomenziesii. K E Y W O R D S polyploidy; genome doubling; whole-genome duplication; autopolyploidy; niche modeling; niche divergence Estimates of the frequency of polyploidy in angiosperms have et al., 2014a). T e evolutionary fate of polyploidy rests on the as- ranged from 30% ( Stebbins, 1950 ) to 70% ( Masterson, 1994 ; see sumption that, following formation, polyploids diverge from their Grant, 1981 , for range of values), with analyses of genomic data progenitors with respect to ecology, geography, or other factors, or demonstrating that all angiosperms have undergone at least one a combination of these properties (e.g., Fowler and Levin, 1984 ; round of whole-genome duplication ( Jiao et al., 2011 ; Amborella Levin, 1983 , 2002 ). Genome Project, 2014 ; see also Cui et al., 2006 ; Soltis et al., 2009 ; Two types of polyploidy have generally been recognized: auto- Van de Peer et al., 2009 ; Van de Peer, 2011 ). Despite the wide rec- polyploidy and allopolyploidy ( Kihara and Ono, 1926 ; Muntzing, ognition of the prevalence of polyploidy, both its evolutionary role 1936 ; Darlington, 1937 ; Clausen et al., 1945 ; Grant, 1981 ). Tradi- and the importance in angiosperm diversif cation have remained tionally, autopolyploidy was considered extremely rare in nature subjects of debate (e.g., Arrigo and Barker, 2012 ; Mayrose et al., and maladaptive ( Stebbins, 1950 ; Grant, 1981 ). Stebbins (1950) , for 2011 ; Scarpino et al., 2014 ; Tank et al., 2015 ; for review see Soltis example, recognized only one unambiguous autopolyploid, Galax urceolata . Accompanying the recent revival of research on poly- 1 Manuscript received 21 March 2016; revision accepted 10 June 2016. ploidy has been an increasing recognition of the frequency and im- 2 Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA; portance of autopolyploidy in nature (reviewed in Soltis and Soltis, 3 Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA; 1993 ; Ramsey and Schemske, 1998 , 2002 ; Tate et al., 2005 ; Soltis et and 4 Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32608 USA al., 2007 ; Parisod et al., 2010 ). Autopolyploids are now considered 5 Author for correspondence: ( clayton.visger@uf .edu ) much more frequent than previously thought, with ~25% of all inves- doi:10.3732/ajb.1600130 tigated plant species containing multiple cytotypes (races of dif erent AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 103 (8): 1 – 11 , 2016; http://www.amjbot.org/ © 2016 Botanical Society of America • 1 Copyright 2016 by the Botanical Society of America 2 • A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L O F B O T A N Y ploidy, generally presumed to be of autopolyploid origin) (e.g., Soltis Judd et al., 2007 ). Furthermore, T. menziesii exhibits tetrasomic et al., 2014a ; Barker et al., 2015 ; Rice et al., 2015 ). inheritance ( Soltis and Soltis, 1988 ), which is an expectation of au- While autopolyploidization can serve as an instant sympatric totetraploids but not allotetraploids (which maintain disomic in- speciation mechanism, it is also a double-edged sword, potentially heritance). All of these features make T. menziesii one of the most yielding an isolated polyploid individual surrounded by a popula- clear-cut autopolyploids in nature ( Soltis and Soltis, 1989 ; Judd tion of closely related diploid organisms, subjected to a frequency- et al., 2007 ). In addition, whereas many polyploids seem to have dependent mating disadvantage (minority cytotype exclusion or formed multiple times ( Doyle et al., 2004 ; Mavrodiev et al., 2015 ; MCE— Levin, 1975 ; Fowler and Levin, 1984 ). Ramsey and Schem- Soltis and Soltis, 2009 ), both previous and ongoing research, in- ske (1998 , 2002 ) estimated the rate of unreduced gamete formation cluding restriction-site analyses ( Soltis et al., 1989 ) and phylogenetic in angiosperms (~0.5–2%), concluding that autopolyploids must analyses of plastid sequences, ITS sequences, and transcriptome form at relatively high frequency in natural populations, while also data (C. Visger, University of Florida, unpublished data), indicates inferring a high rate of failure to establish. To succeed as a new spe- fewer origins of T. menziesii than other well-documented autopoly- cies, the nascent autopolyploid must reach establishment by one of ploids (e.g., Servick et al., 2015 ); it has formed once or perhaps only several (nonmutually exclusive) methods: supplanting the progeni- a few times during a limited time frame. tor population, achieving a chance colonization of disturbed or re- Here, we investigate the factors contributing to the nonoverlap- cently opened habitat, or shif ing its optimal niche conditions ping geographic ranges of T. menziesii and T. diplomenziesii . Spe- ( Fowler and Levin, 1984 ; Levin, 1983 , 2002 ). cif cally, we ask whether their spatial separation can be explained by Several studies have investigated the niche dif erences between climatic niche divergence, rather than chance geographical isola- autopolyploids and their diploid progenitors, with mixed results. In tion. In a review spanning both auto- and allopolyploids, Glennon some cases, autopolyploidy was accompanied or followed by niche et al. (2014) found that polyploid species most of en occupied niche divergence from the parental diploid ( Glennon et al., 2012 ; spaces that were a subset of their progenitors’ niches, indicating M c I n t y r e , 2 0 1 2 ; T eodoridis et al., 2013; T ompson et al., 2014 ). In that ecological novelty might not be the most common mode of contrast, diploid and autotetraploid cytotypes of Heuchera cylin- establishment. Rather, as observed between diploid and autotetra- drica , for example, do not have divergent niche requirements, de- ploid cytotypes of Heuchera cylindrica ( Godsoe et al., 2013 ) and spite occupying largely allopatric ranges ( Godsoe et al., 2013 ). In Ranunculus adoneus ( Baack and Stanton, 2005 ), spatial separation another example, reciprocal transplanting of diploid and autotetra- unaccompanied by niche divergence can serve as a mechanism for ploid Ranunculus adoneus revealed that niche divergence did not escape from minority cytotype disadvantage. Although allopoly- contribute to autotetraploid establishment ( Baack and Stanton, ploids may exhibit a range of niche spaces relative to those of their 2005 ). These seemingly contrasting results may be explained by parents (Marchant et al., 2016), given the results for Heuchera lineage-specif c ef ects of polyploidy on plant physiology and abi- cylindrica (a species closely related to Tolmiea ; Soltis et al., 2001 ) otic stress response. Unfortunately, however, the immediate physi- ( Godsoe et al., 2013 ) and the autopolyploid nature of T. menziesii , ological ef ects of polyploidy in an ecological context remain niche equivalency (conservatism) between T. diplomenziesii and unclear in all but a few systems (e.g., Maherali et al., 2009 ; Ramsey, T. menziesii is our null expectation, with subsequent divergence 2011 ; del Pozo and Ramirez-Parra, 2014 ). T e ef ects of polyploidy occurring only in spatial distribution. are by no means expected to be consistent across angiosperms, and To address whether spatial separation between T. menziesii and therefore, the role of stochastic establishment vs. niche divergence T. diplomenziesii is accompanied by abiotic niche divergence,