Ploidy level and reproductive behaviour in the facultatively apomictic high-polyploid Hieracium subgen. Pilosella
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| Year of publication | 2009 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | The reproductive behaviour and the capacity to generate variation in ploidy level was studied in heptaploid and octoploid hybrid mother plants of Hieracium subgen. Pilosella. Three ways in shaping the ploidy level variation were found: 1. Mating via unreduced gametes (2n + n, n + 2n) even further increased the ploidy level in the progeny of heptaploid and octoploid mother-plants up to 9x, 10x, 11x, 12x. 2. Mating via reduced gametes (n + n) or true apomixis (2n + 0) resulted in the cytotypes commonly occurring at the locality (4x, 5x, 6x), or it conserved the maternal ploidy level (7x, 8x), respectively. 3. Haploid parthenogenesis (n + 0) reduced the ploidy level: 3x to 4x polyhaploid progeny was found. Comparing the variation within the seeds to that within the seedlings, the selection against progeny cytotypes with extreme ploidy levels (3x to 4x or 10x to 12x) was shown. However, the high-polyploid hybrids may further increase the total ploidy variation within a population and may produce new biotypes with favourable combinations of characters. |
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