Spotted knapweed (Centaurea stoebe) occurs from Western Asia to Western Europe both as diploid and tetraploid cytotypes, predominantly in single-cytotype populations with higher frequency of diploid populations. Interestingly, only tetraploids have been recorded so far from its introduced range in North America where they became highly invasive. We performed phylogenetic and network analyses of...

Reticulate evolution is characterized by occasional hybridization between two species, creating a network of closely related taxa below and at the species level. In the present research, we aimed to verify the hypothesis of the allopolyploid origin of hexaploid C. album s. str., identify its putative parents and estimate the frequency of allopolyploidization events. We sampled 122 individuals o...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Understanding the consequences of polyploidization is a major step towards assessing the importance of this mode of speciation. Most previous studies comparing different cytotypes, however, did so only within a single environment and considered only one group of traits. To take a step further, we need to explore multiple environments and a wide range of traits. The aim of th...

PREMISE OF THE STUDY The evolutionary history of Leucaena has been impacted by polyploidy, hybridization, and divergent allopatric species diversification, suggesting that this is an ideal group to investigate the evolutionary tempo of polyploidy and the complexities of reticulation and divergence in plant diversification. METHODS Parsimony- and ML-based phylogenetic approaches were applied t...

Our understanding of the potential mechanisms driving the spread and naturalization of alien plant species has increased over the past decades, but specific knowledge on the factors contributing to their increased impact in the introduced range is still urgently needed. The native European plant Centaurea stoebe occurs as two cytotypes with different life histories (monocarpic diploids, allo-po...

Kosteletzkya C. Presl, 1835 (Malvaceae, Malvoideae, Hibisceae) includes 17 species, all but two of which are about evenly distributed between Africa and the northern Neotropics. Fifteen of the species were brought into cultivation and used in a hybridization program in an attempt to shed light on evolutionary and phytogeographic relationships in the genus. Chromosome pairing (x = 19) at meiosis...

According to the ‘environmental selection’ hypothesis, the physical characteristics of environments influence the evolution of long-range acoustic signals by favouring those properties that decrease sound attenuation and distortion with distance. Different environments could favour different acoustic properties and therefore contribute to the intraand interspecific variation of calls. In the pr...

Differences in ploidy levels among different fern species have a vast influence on their mating system, their colonization ability and on the gene flow among populations. Differences in the colonization abilities of species with different ploidy levels are well known: tetraploids, in contrast to diploids, are able to undergo intra-gametophytic selfing. Because fertilization is a post-dispersal ...

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Exotic diseases are threatening many North American tree species, and management of diseases requires understanding the biology of the host as well as the pathogen. Ulmus americana is a widespread dominant tree of eastern North America that has been widely planted as an ornamental and shade tree. Populations of the species have suffered heavy mortality from Dutch elm diseas...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Asexual organisms are more widespread in previously glaciated areas than their sexual relatives ('geographical parthenogenesis'). In plants, this pattern is probably dependent on reproductive isolation and stability of cytotypes within their respective distribution areas. Both partial apomixis and introgressive hybridization potentially destabilize the spatial separation of ...