Journal of Heredity Advance Access originally published online on April 13, 2006
Journal of Heredity 2006 97(3):296-302; doi:10.1093/jhered/esj029
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Brief Communications |
Electrophoretic Evidence for Disomic Inheritance and Allopolyploid Origin of the Octoploid Cerastium alpinum (Caryophyllaceae)
From the Department of Natural Sciences, Mid Sweden University, S-851 70 Sundsvall, Sweden (Nyberg Berglund); Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University, S-901 87 Umeå, Sweden (Saura); and Department of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden (Westerbergh)
Address correspondence to A.-B. Nyberg Berglund at the address above, or e-mail: Anna-Britt.Nyberg-Berglund{at}miun.se.
The mode of inheritance of six enzyme markers in the octoploid alpine plant Cerastium alpinum was analyzed. Offspring from crosses between heterozygotes showed fixed heterozygosity at malate dehydrogenase-2, phosphoglucoisomerase-2, triosephosphate isomerase-2, and triosephosphate isomerase-3. Phosphoglucomutase-1 also showed fixed heterozygosity except in offspring from one cross. Fixed heterozygosity in five enzyme systems suggests that C. alpinum has originated through at least some allopolyploidization. Offspring from plants heterozygous for two alleles at the menadione reductase-1 (Mr-1) locus did not deviate significantly from a 1:2:1 ratio. The large proportion of homozygotes suggests disomic inheritance because any kind of polysomic inheritance would result in a substantially increased proportion of heterozygotes relative to disomic inheritance. Assuming a diploid model for Mr-1, this locus was used to analyze the population genetic structure within C. alpinum populations. Inbreeding was found in many alpine populations. This may help explain the large genetic distances found among alpine populations in a previous study. The analysis is only based on one segregating locus, and the results should therefore be treated with caution. However, by establishing the mode of inheritance through crosses, we have been able to use a codominant marker in population genetic analysis of an octoploid plant.