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Hybridization, recombination, and the genetic basis of fitness variation across environments in Avena barbata

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Abstract

We created Recombinant Inbred Lines (RILs) derived from a cross between ecotypes of Avena barbata associated with moist (mesic) and dry (xeric) habitats in California. Traits which were correlated with fitness across RILs mapped to the same Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs) as fitness. However, different QTL affected fitness in different environments so that fitness was weakly correlated across environments. Recombination released considerable heritable variation both in fitness, and in ecologically relevant traits. Many traits showed transgressive segregation caused by recombination of QTL associated in repulsion phase in the parents. In addition, some traits were uncorrelated, allowing novel combinations of those traits to be created. Recombination also created heritable variation in reaction norms for at least one trait (root allocation). Altogether these results suggest that recombination can combine the most selectively advantageous genes and traits of the parents to produce broadly adapted genotypes that are capable of outperforming the parents. Indeed, two of the RILs showed higher fitness than the parental ecotypes across a range of environmental treatments in the greenhouse, but their superiority was less pronounced in the field. Although late-generation recombinants exhibited hybrid breakdown, being less fit, on average, than the mid-parent, early generation hybrids appear to exhibit hybrid vigour through the expression of dominance effects in the heterozyotes. This vigour may offset the effects of hybrid breakdown in the early generations following a cross, enhancing the opportunity for recombination to create broadly adapted genotypes. We discuss the implications of these findings to the evolution of colonizing species.

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Abbreviations

QTL:

Quantitative trait locus

RIL:

Recombinant inbred line

RMR:

Root mass ratio

GxE:

Genotype by environment interaction

HREC:

Hopland Research and Extension Center

SFREC:

Sierra Foothills Research and Extension Center

AFLP:

Amplified fragment length polymorphism

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Acknowledgements

This work would have been impossible without the help and support of many people. Dr. Pedro Garcia very kindly provided the seeds from which the RILs were derived. Greenhouse support was provided by Carman Mills and a large group of undergraduate students. Field support was generously provided by Robert Keiffer, Chuck Vaughn, Mike Connor and Dave Labadie and the staff of Hopland Research and Extension Centre and Sierra Foothills Research and Extension Center of the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California. DNA analyses were conducted in the Dalhousie Marine Gene Probe Laboratory with invaluable input from Doug Cook. The work has benefited greatly from the support and input of Dan Schoen, Jim Hamrick, Kevin Rice, John McKay, Mark Johnston, Christophe Herbinger, Joanna MacKenzie, and Angel Vats. This work was financially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada through a Research Grant to RGL and through Post Graduate Scholarships to ADJ and KMG. This paper was submitted for the symposium entitled, “All Stressed Out and Nowhere to Go: Does Evolvability Limit Adaptation in Invasive Species?” at the 2004 SSE/SSB/ASN conference in Fort Collins, CO, organized by Carol Lee and George Gilchrist.

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  1. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford St, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3H 4J1

    Robert G. Latta, Kyle M. Gardner & April D. Johansen-Morris

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  1. Robert G. Latta
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  2. Kyle M. Gardner
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  3. April D. Johansen-Morris
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Correspondence to Robert G. Latta.

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Latta, R.G., Gardner, K.M. & Johansen-Morris, A.D. Hybridization, recombination, and the genetic basis of fitness variation across environments in Avena barbata . Genetica 129, 167–177 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-006-9012-x

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