Extensive analysis of native and non-native Centaurea solstitialis L. populations across the world shows no traces of polyploidization

IRIMIA RE; MONTESINOS D; EREN Ö; LORTIE CJ; FRENCH K; CAVIERES LA; SOTES GJ; HIERRO J; JORGE A; LOUREIRO J

PEER JOURNAL

PEER J

Año: 2017

Centaureasolstitialis L. (yellow starthistle, Asteraceae) is a Eurasian native plant introducedas an exotic into North and South America, and Australia, where it is regardedas a noxious invasive. Changes in ploidy level have been found to be responsiblefor numerous plant biological invasions, as they are involved in trait shifts criticalto invasive success, like increased growth rate and biomass, longer life-span,or polycarpy. C. solstitialis had been reported to be diploid (2n=2x =16chromosomes), however, actual data are scarce and sometimes contradictory. Wedetermined for the first time the absolute nuclear DNA content by flowcytometry and estimated ploidy level in 52 natural populations of C. solstitialisacross its native and non-native ranges, around the world. All the C.solstitialis populations screened were found to be homogeneously diploid(average 2C value of 1.72 pg, SD = ±0.06 pg), with no significant variation inDNA content between invasive and non-invasive genotypes. We did not find anymeaningful difference among the extensive number of native and non-native C. solstitialispopulations sampled around the globe, indicating that the species invasivesuccess is not due to changes in genome size or ploidy level.