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Balance between inbreeding and outcrossing in a nannandrous species, the moss Homalothecium lutescens.

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Author

Summary, in English

Epiphytic dwarf males on the females present a possible solution to the problem of short fertilization distances in mosses. However, leptokurtic spore dispersal makes dwarf males likely to be closely related to their host shoot, with an accompanying risk of inbreeding. The capacity of a female to harbour a high number of different dwarf males suggests that there may be mechanisms in place that counteract inbreeding, such as polyandry and post-fertilization selection. We have genotyped sporophytes, female host shoots and dwarf males in four populations of the moss Homalothecium lutescens. We found no evidence of selective sporophyte abortion based on level of heterozygosity. The occurrence of entirely homozygous sporophytes together with significantly positive inbreeding coefficients in three of the populations (mean FIS between 0.48 and 0.64) suggest frequent mother-son mating events. However, 23% of all sampled sporophytes had a higher level of heterozygosity compared with the mean expected heterozygosity at the population level. Polyandry was frequent, on average 59% of the sporophytes on a female shoot were sired by distinct fathers. In conclusion, sporadic fertilizations by dwarf males originating from nonhost female shoots appear to counteract strong inbreeding.Heredity advance online publication, 2 September 2015; doi:10.1038/hdy.2015.79.

Publishing year

2016

Language

English

Pages

107-113

Publication/Series

Heredity

Volume

116

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Macmillan

Topic

  • Genetics

Status

Published

Project

  • Genetic variation and sexual reproduction in a moss with dwarf males, Homalothecium lutescens
  • Fertilization syndromes in bryophytes

Research group

  • Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1365-2540