Genetic Variability in Balkan Paleoendemic Resurrection Plants Ramonda serbica and R. nathaliae Across Their Range and in the Zone of Sympatry.

ABSTRACT: The genus Ramonda includes three Paleoendemic and Tertiary relict species that survived in refugial habitats of the Balkan Peninsula (R. nathaliae and R. serbica) and the Iberian Peninsula (R. myconi). They are all "resurrection plants," a rare phenomenon among flowering plants in Europe. Ramonda myconi and R. nathaliae are diploids (2n = 2x = 48), while R. serbica is a hexaploid (2n = 6x = 144). The two Balkan species occur in sympatry in only two localities in eastern Serbia, where tetraploid potential hybrids (2n = 4x = 96) were found. This observation raised questions about the existence of gene flow between the two species and, more generally, about the evolutionary processes shaping their genet

SUBMITTER: Lazarevic M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9096497 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature