Evolutionary and functional potential of ploidy increase within individual plants: somatic ploidy mapping of the complex labellum of sexually deceptive bee orchids.

ABSTRACT: Background and Aims:Recent tissue-level observations made indirectly via flow cytometry suggest that endoreplication (duplication of the nuclear genome within the nuclear envelope in the absence of subsequent cell division) is widespread within the plant kingdom. Here, we also directly observe ploidy variation among cells within individual petals, relating size of nucleus to cell micromorphology and (more speculatively) to function. Methods:We compared the labella (specialized pollinator-attracting petals) of two European orchid genera: Dactylorhiza has a known predisposition to organismal polyploidy, whereas Ophrys exhibits exceptionally complex epidermal patterning that aids pseudocopulatory pollination. Confocal microscopy using multiple staining techniques allowed us to observe directl

SUBMITTER: Bateman RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6025197 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature