Wyatt, R; Odrzykoski, I J; Stoneburner, A; Bass, H W; Galau, G A.
Allopolyploidy in bryophytes: Multiple origins of Plagiomnium medium.
Proc Natl Acad Sci (USA) 85(15):5601-5604.
ABSTRACT:
Bryophytes are thought to be unique among land plants in lacking the
important evolutionary process of allopolyploidy, which involves
interspecific hybridization and chromosome doubling. Electrophoretic data
show, however, that the polyploid moss Plagiomnium medium is an
allopolyploid derivative of Plagiomnium ellipticum and Plagiomnium
insigne, that P. medium has originated more than once from these
progenitors, and that cross-fertilization results in interlocus genetic
recombination. Evidence from restriction fragment length polymorphisms in
chloroplast DNA implicates P. insigne as the female parent in
interspecific hybridizations with P. ellipticum. Contrary to prevailing
views, it appears that those evolutionary processes responsible for
genetic differentiation and speciation in other land plants occur in the
bryophytes as well.
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