Possible tobacco progenitors share long-tongued hawkmoths as pollen vectors

NATTERO JULIETA; MORÉ MARCELA; SÉRSIC ALICIA; COCUCCI ANDREA

PLANT SYSTEMATICS AND EVOLUTION

Springer Verlag

Lugar: Austria; Año: 2003 vol. 241 p. 47 - 54

0378-2697

Nicotiana tabacum originated by hybridization between ancestors with distinct flower features, apparently  suited either for hawkmoths or bat pollination. This suggests that progenitors were reproductively isolated by mechanical and ethological barriers. However, the present data show that in natural populations, pollen vectors of one of the possible male progenitors (N. otophora) were short- and long.tongued hawkmoths and a nectar feeding bat, while those of the female ancestor (N. sylvestris) were only long-tongued hawkmoths. The latter are then the most likely vectors responsible for the presumed spontaneous hybridization. These data also explain that interspecific pollen transfer occurred more likely in one direction.