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* Unité de Recherches Forestières Méditerranéennes (UR 629), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 84914 Avignon, France,
UMR BotAnique et BioinforMatique de l'Architecture des Plantes (AMAP), CIRAD/CNRS/INRA/IRD/Université Montpellier II, 34398 Montpellier, France and
UMR 406 INRA/Université d'Avignon, 84914 Avignon, France
1 Corresponding author: URFM-INRA, Site Agroparc, Domaine Saint Paul, 84914 Avignon, France.
E-mail: christian.pichot{at}avignon.inra.fr
| ABSTRACT |
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Until recently, apomixis had been reported only in Angiosperms. The highly endangered Mediterranean conifer, Cupressus dupreziana A. Camus (or Tassili cypress), is to our knowledge the first plant species where in planta "paternal apomixis" (i.e., embryogenic development of diploid pollen in seed tissues) was hypothesized (PICHOT et al. 2000). This monoecious species is the most notable tree species of the mountainous region of the Tassili N'Ajjer plateau in the central Algerian Sahara desert (BALACHOWSKY 1955). The natural population today is reduced to 233 trees spread over 1200 km2 on the southwestern border of the Tassili N'Ajjer plateau (
1500 m above sea level) (ABDOUN and BEDDIAF 2002). Low accessibility due to high cliffs has contributed to protecting these trees from traditional harvesting for timber supply in Djanet and Ghat oases. In more accessible regions, overexploitation led to the extinction of the populations. Both extreme climatic conditions (the mean annual rainfall averages 30 mm) and a high human pressure may explain the very poor natural regeneration observed. The species produces unreduced diploid pollen whose embryogenic ability was demonstrated in interspecific pollinations; the controlled pollination of ovules of Cupressus sempervirens L. (or Mediterranean cypress) by pollen of C. dupreziana produces diploid embryos of C. dupreziana in C. sempervirens seeds (PICHOT et al. 2001). Reciprocally, we demonstrate here that the C. dupreziana surrogate mother ability makes it possible to develop haploid embryos from reduced pollen produced by another cypress species. To our knowledge, this is the first report of natural in planta androgenesis in plants.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Morphological observations and ploidy level:
Number of cotyledons, length and shape of juvenile leaves, and foliage color were recorded on 4-month-old seedlings to discriminate C. dupreziana and C. sempervirens phenotypes. Seedling ploidy level was assessed by flow cytometry. Nuclei of fresh somatic tissues were stained with 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole and analyzed using a PARTEC Ploidy Analyser PA following the protocol described by PICHOT and EL MAÂTAOUI (2000).
The effect of seed tree geographic origin on the proportion of the different phenotypes and ploidy levels of the progeny was tested using a generalized linear model with the logit link function (COLLETT 1991). Statistical analyses were performed with the R software (R DEVELOPMENT CORE TEAM 2004).
Genetic diversity:
To infer the genetic origin of the seedlings, we compared their genetic patterns revealed by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) (VOS et al. 1995) to those of 14 cypress species available from INRA (French National Institute for Agricultural Research) collections: C. sempervirens (7 samples), C. atlantica (5), C. dupreziana (43), C. arizonica (5), C. goveniana (5), C. forbesii (4), C. lusitanica (5), C. macnabiana (2), C. macrocarpa (5), C. benthamii (5), C. funebris (5), C. cashmeriana (5), C. chengiana (5), C. torulosa (5). AFLP analysis was conducted using the protocol (slightly modified) of ZABEAU and VOS (1993). DNA was digested with EcoRI and MseI restriction enzymes. Amplifications were performed using a Gradient 96 Stratagene (La Jolla, CA) Robotcycler. Selective amplifications were performed using EcoRI + ACG and MseI + CAG primer pairs. Silver staining was conducted according to the procedure (slightly modified) described by CRESTE et al. (2001). The presence/absence of AFLP marker bands was scored for all individuals.
The individual AFLP profiles of the seedlings were plotted as supplemental points on the plane defined by the first two axes of the discriminant analysis performed on the genetic profiles of the cypresses used as the control (14 species). The discriminant multivariate analysis was performed using the Multidim package (CARLIER and CROQUETTE 2002) within the R software.
| RESULTS |
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AFLP pattern of the controls:
Genetic diversity was estimated with 32 polymorphic AFLP markers. The discriminant analysis of AFLP profiles for the control species (106 individuals) clearly discriminated their three main geographic origins—America, Asia, and the Mediterranean basin—and also led to a clear differentiation among Mediterranean species. Moreover, five AFLP bands were diagnostic markers for C. sempervirens (one band) and C. dupreziana (four bands). A nuclear biparental inheritance is usually reported for AFLP markers (LERCETEAU and SZMIDT 1999; KAKEHI et al. 2005). A nuclear inheritance was also demonstrated for 6 of our 32 markers by analyzing segregation of AFLP bands in progeny produced by C. sempervirens-controlled crosses (data not shown). The 26 remaining markers were not analyzable due to the lack of polymorphism.
Characteristics of the progeny from in situ C. dupreziana seed trees (Table 1):
All 38 seedlings produced by the six in situ C. dupreziana seed trees had two cotyledons and exhibited a C. dupreziana phenotype (Figure 1A). Their relative fluorescence intensity peaks corresponded to those of somatic diploid tissues used as the control. AFLP patterns of these seedlings matched those of C. dupreziana controls.
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Most of the C. sempervirens-like seedlings had reduced growth and sometimes exhibited an unusual bushy shape. About one-third (32 of 106) of these seedlings were diploid (Figure 1B). They had two cotyledons, except for one with three cotyledons. The remaining two-thirds produced peaks of fluorescence intensity corresponding to half the diploid DNA amount and were consequently considered as haploid (Figure 1C). All haploid seedlings had two cotyledons. Irrespective of their ploidy levels, all C. sempervirens-like seedlings exhibited AFLP profiles that matched those of the C. sempervirens control trees (Figure 2). Almost all ex situ C. dupreziana seed trees produced haploid seedlings. Only five seed trees, with a very low number of seedlings (four with one and one with three), produced only diploid progeny.
The proportion of C. sempervirens-like progeny vs. C. dupreziana-like progeny varied strongly from one site to the other, but the proportion of haploid seedlings within the C. sempervirens-like progeny was less variable (Table 2).
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| DISCUSSION |
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Species compatibility:
Although C. dupreziana seed trees planted in French cypress collections were surrounded by many other cypress species, all the seedlings deriving from alien pollen were C. sempervirens trees. It must be stressed that no seedlings from American cypress species were observed although many C. dupreziana seed trees were close to C. arizonica cypresses and that their flowering periods clearly overlap (PICHOT 2000). The large genetic distance between these species as compared to the proximity between the two Mediterranean species may explain this feature. According to recent studies, the genus Cupressus is paraphyletic (LITTLE et al. 2004; LITTLE 2006). Cypresses from the New World, now recombined into the genus Callitropsis, and cypresses from the Old Word (Mediterranean and Asian species), keeping the genus name Cupressus, do not share the same phylogenetic origin.
Significant variation in the proportion of C. sempervirens-like vs. C. dupreziana-like progeny observed among sites (Table 2) may be due to the relative contribution of the two species to the pollen cloud. Indeed, the highest rate of C. sempervirens-like progeny was observed in seeds collected from the Estérel plantation where C. dupreziana seed trees are the smallest and have a very low pollen production.
Conditions for natural androgenesis:
Although the production of all-maternal progeny by apomixis or parthenogenesis is a rather frequent phenomenon, the production of all-paternal progeny has been very rarely reported (MCKONE and HALPERN 2003). In animals, it has been reported to occur naturally in freshwater clams (Corbicula genus) (KOMARU et al. 1998) and in interspecific hybrids of the Sicilian stick insect Bacillus rossius-grandii (TINTI and SCALI 1995). It was also observed in Drosophila melanogaster mutants (KOMMA and ENDOW 1995) and following fish egg irradiation (ARAKI et al. 1995). To our knowledge, C. dupreziana is the only plant in which progeny are produced by the apomictic development of pollen grains. The scarcity of androgenic cases reported compared to the amount of gynogenic case reports may be explained not only by the probable evolutionary dead end of this reproductive process but also by the difficulty in detecting it (MCKONE and HALPERN 2003). The male component ability to produce an embryo without female gamete contribution may not be so rare. In fact, it is intensively used in Angiosperms to produce haploid genotypes from in vitro culture of immature anthers. Thus, favorable growth conditions combined with a lack of syngamy opportunity may often lead to androgenesis. Such conditions occur naturally in the C. dupreziana x C. sempervirens cross-pollination system due to the production of unreduced diploid male and female spores in C. dupreziana (PICHOT et al. 1998; PICHOT and EL MAÂTAOUI 2000).
Consequences for C. dupreziana genetic preservation:
Natural production of C. sempervirens cypresses by C. dupreziana seed trees is an unusual type of genetic pollution although it is, according to our observations, restricted to seed admixture and does not include hybridization. The apomictic reproductive process protected the species from extinction for millennia and today prevents it from interspecific hybridization. This feature greatly facilitates the genetic conservation of the Tassili cypress and its safe propagation by seeds. However, only seeds collected from C. dupreziana seed trees that are very distant from other cypress species can be considered as pure C. dupreziana seeds. In other cases, seedling phenotype has to be checked to eliminate all non-C. dupreziana individuals, even if these alien seedlings probably would have been naturally counterselected due to the expression of deleterious genes. Unfortunately, this short-term advantage is also a long-term dead end as there is no more possibility for genetic evolution.
Production of haploid genotypes:
Our findings also demonstrate the opportunity to produce haploid genotypes in C. sempervirens species. This material is highly valuable for genetic studies and mapping, especially in C. sempervirens where the tetrasporic origin of the megagametophyte (EL MAÂTAOUI et al. 1998) prevents analysis of marker segregation as usually performed in conifers (WU et al. 1999). Finally, the highly probable sterility of the haploid genotypes offers a unique opportunity of producing cone-free cultivars. This may be very attractive in practical terms since the heavy production of female cones depreciates the aesthetic value of ornamental cypresses, while pollen produced by male cones causes severe pollinosis in Mediterranean regions (CHARPIN et al. 2005).
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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Communicating editor: O. SAVOLAINEN
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