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Systematics, Phytogeography, and Evolution |
2Department of Botany, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwake-cho, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan 3Faculty of Contemporary Culture, Tokyo Woman's Christian University, Zempukuji, Suginami-ku, Tokyo 112-8551, Japan 4Botanical Gardens, Bogor, Jl. Ir. H. Juanda 13, Bogor 16122, Indonesia
Received for publication July 25, 2000. Accepted for publication February 15, 2001.
| ABSTRACT |
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Key Words: Asplenium nidus complex molecular systematics rbcL reproductive isolation
| INTRODUCTION |
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Asplenium sect. Thamnopteris, a group of epiphytic ferns with simple leaves, lacks good qualitative taxonomic characters for species recognition. Holttum (1974)
monographed 15 species of sect. Thamnopteris using gross morphological characters. However, species delimitation is unclear, and the naturalness of these as species of this taxon is questionable because most of the characters that he adopted as keys to the species are quantitative characters such as frond width and frond apex shape. In cases such as this in which morphology fails to yield clear hypotheses, the characters of DNA sequences can provide alternative useful information for species recognition.
Asplenium nidus is one of the species assigned to Asplenium sect. Thamnopteris and it can be found throughout the Old World tropics. A large degree of rbcL variation has been found in plants identified as A. nidus sensu Holttum (1974)
from various localities (Murakami et al., 1999b, c
). Because the evolutionary rates of rbcL were reported to be relatively slow (Chase et al., 1993
), we made various comparisons among the plants of A. nidus with various rbcL types in order to clarify whether this rbcL variation was intraspecific or interspecific (Murakami et al., 1999b, c
). In the sympatric populations of Mt. Halimun National Park, located in West Java, Indonesia, Murakami et al. (1999b)
found three rbcL types of A. nidus with different habitat preferences. We called those type A, type B, and type C, respectively. Type A and type B were distributed sympatrically even on a reduced scale at 10001250 m altitude, but their habitats were differentiated by their relative position on tree trunks. Type A grow on the deeply shaded lower section of tree trunks, whereas type B grow on higher sections, where they are half shaded. Type C are distributed almost parapatrically at 11701700 m altitude and never grow with type B and seldom with type A. Type C grow on either higher and lower sections of the trunks. Although these three types have been treated as conspecific because they are undistinguishable by their gross morphology, the former study provided indirect evidence that they are not intraspecific variations but biologically separate entities. However, it was not clear whether these three types were reproductively isolated.
To clarify this hypothesis, we conducted artificial crossing experiments among these rbcL types and examined their crossability. We also examined the somatic chromosome number of these three types because differences in ploidy would reduce the fecundity of hybrid plants and function as barriers to gene flow.
Furthermore, we determined the rbcL sequences of A. nidus plants from several other localities, added these sequences to the data set of Murakami et al. (1999b)
, and conducted phylogenetic analyses.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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For phylogenetic analyses, PCR amplification of rbcL fragments followed Murakami et al. (1999c)
. The PCR products were purified using a GENE CLEAN III kit (BIO101, Vista, California, USA) after electrophoresis in 1.0% agarose gel and then used as templates for direct sequencing. Sequencing reactions were prepared using a Big Dye terminator cycle sequencing kit (Perkin Elmer Applied Biosystems, Foster, California, USA). The reaction mixtures were analyzed on an Applied Biosystems Model 377 automated sequencer (Perkin Elmer Applied Biosystems). Sequences were aligned using Sequence Navigator Software (Perkin Elmer Applied Biosystems).
For the crossing experiments and cytological observations,
500 bp (base pair) rbcL sequences were examined to identify the three types.
Phylogenetic analyses
The rbcL sequence data matrix contained data from 32 accessions. Their database accession numbers are listed in Table 1. Phylogenetic analysis was performed by the Maximum Parsimony method using PAUP (Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony) version 3.1.1 (Swofford, 1993
). A branch and bound search was conducted to find the most parsimonious trees. Asplenium griffithianum was used as an outgroup because its relevance as an outgroup was shown by Murakami et al. (1999a)
. A bootstrap analysis with 10 000 replications was performed in order to estimate the reliability for various clades.
Cytological observation
We observed somatic chromosomes from root tips of the three rbcL types by pretreating with 0.002 mol/L 8-hydroxyquinoline solution for 46 h at
20°C. After fixation in 45% acetic acid at 4°C for 20 min, the root tips were hydrolyzed in 60°C 1 mol/L HCl for 60 sec. They were then stained with 2% aceto-orcein for 1 h squashed and observed using a light microscope (BH2, OLYMPUS, Tokyo, Japan).
Allozyme analyses
Fresh leaves were ground in 1.0 mL of cold extraction buffer containing 0.1 mmol/L Tris-HCl, 1 mmol/L EDTA (4NA), 10 mmol/L KCl, 10 mmol/L MgCl2, 0.4% 2-mercaptoethanol, and 10% polyvinyl-pyrrolidone with the pH adjusted to 7.5. Enzymes were resolved on 6% polyacrylamide gels following the procedures of Shiraishi (1988)
. We examined leucine aminopeptidase (LAP; EC 3.4.11.1), also following Shiraishi (1988)
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Crossing
Fresh green leaves with mature sori from eight individuals of Asplenium nidus were collected from Mt. Halimun National Park on December 1998. Four or five leaves were collected from each individual, and one was used for DNA extraction and allozyme analyses. Another was kept in KYO as a voucher specimen, and the others were used for collecting spores.
We examined the rbcL and LAP allozymes of the sporophytes. These sporophytes were shown to be appropriate parents for crossing experiments with specific genetic markers (Fig. 1). Spores of each sporophyte were sown on inorganic nutrient media in petri dishes 9 cm in diameter and cultivated in a chamber following the methods of Watano and Masuyama (1991)
. Forty days after spore sowing, we obtained gametophytes with archgonia, which functioned as females, though gametophytes were not always found with antheridia. If necessary, we resowed the spores around the mature gametophytes. The spores were induced to germinate and to produce antheridia, probably owing to antheridogen, which was secreted by mature gametophytes. We then obtained gametophytes with antheridia, which functioned as males.
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| RESULTS |
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| DISCUSSION |
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In the controls of crossings between types A and B, the frequencies of occurrence of juvenile sporophytes ranged from 50 to 95% (Fig. 5, I, IV). These successful results of the controls suggest that an abundance of gametophytes with antheridia, which functioned as males, existed in dishes flooded with water, and the gametophytes transferred into the dishes, which functioned as females, bore mature archegonia. Nevertheless, judging from LAP allozyme patterns, no hybrids between types A and B were obtained in the treatments (Fig. 5, II, III). It is hypothesized that the formation of sporophytes in the treatment resulted from the transferred gametophytes mating among themselves. The gametophytes functioning as females sometimes bear not only archegonia but also antheridia because the gametophytes of homosporous ferns are hermaphroditic and defectively dichogamous. However, the frequencies of occurrence of juvenile sporophytes in the controls were always significantly higher than those in the treatments. Therefore, it is assumed that the gametophytes that functioned as males supplied numerous spermatozoa. The absence of hybrids between types A and B in the treatments suggest that types A and B may be cryptic species.
In the crossings between types A and C, no hybrids were obtained, either. The frequencies of occurrence of juvenile sporophytes in the control were always higher than those in the treatments and significantly higher in one of three data sets. Therefore, types A and C may also represent cryptic species.
The two pairs of rbcL types that we used for the crossing experiments coexist, sometimes side by side, in Mt. Halimun National Park. Types A and B grew together even on the same tree trunk. Types A and C grew together only rarely, but they did in several sites at
1200 m altitude. Nevertheless, no natural hybrids with irregularly shaped spores have been found in Mt. Halimun National Park. In the case of types A and B, since they are ecologically differentiated, the premating isolation mechanisms should function as barriers to gene flow to some extent. The habitat preference of the gametophytes may also be differentiated between type A and B. However, we could not find any natural hybrids even on the middle section of the tree trunks where these two types are adjacent to one another. It is evident that the postmating isolation observed in our crossing experiments functions as a barrier to gene flow between the two rbcL types to keep their biological identities separate. This postmating isolation may be prezygotic isolation or zygotic sterility.
Thus, our results suggest that these three rbcL types are cryptic species, though the crossability between types B and C has not yet been examined.
In Asplenium sect. Thamnopteris, the morphology does not provide good qualititative taxonomic characters for species recognition. However, DNA sequence data provide characters for separating apparently cryptic species. When we combine the DNA sequence data and crossing experiments, we are able to recognize these species more effectively. Coyne and Orr (1989)
reported that the genetic distance of allozymes are well correlated with the degree of speciation in Drosophila. The DNA sequence data and the degree of speciation are also expected to correlate in Asplenium sect. Thamnopteris. In order to delimit the range of the species and revise the taxonomy of Asplenium sect. Thamnopteris, we are planning to examine the crossability of many other pairs of rbcL types in Asplenium sect. Thamnopteris.
Moreover, we examined intramorphospecific variations of rbcL sequences also in other distantly related fern groups such as Hymenasplenium obliquissimum (Aspleniaceae) (Murakami et al., 1998
), H. cheilosorum (Murakami, Yokoyama, and Iwatsuki, 1998
), Stegnogramma pozoi (Thelypteridaceae) (Yatabe, Takamiya, and Murakami, 1998
), Osmunda cinnamomea, Os. claytonia, Os. regalis (Osmundaceae) (Yatabe, Takamiya, and Murakami, 1999
), and Cheiropleuria bicuspis (Cheiropleuriaceae) (Kato et al., 2001). In each species, we found a large amount of rbcL sequence variation. We estimated the substitution rates of rbcL of Osmundaceae, and our estimation suggested that one nucleotide substitution between two rbcL sequences occurs only once in 5 million years on average (Yatabe, Nishida, and Murakami, 1999
). Therefore, the large amount of rbcL sequence variation in these species may suggest that they consist of several different reproductively isolated criptic species, just as Asplenium nidus does. We are also planning to apply the same strategy used for A. nidus to these species in order to determine species status and to test the hypothesis that rbcL sequence data are generally useful for characterizing reproductively isolated groups within morphologically consistent assemblages.
| FOOTNOTES |
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5 Author for reprint requests. ![]()
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