Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Reproductive strategies and their consequences for divergence, gene flow, and genetic diversity in three taxa of Clarkia

Abstract

Differences in reproductive strategies can have important implications for macro- and micro-evolutionary processes. We used a comparative approach through a population genetics lens to evaluate how three distinct reproductive strategies shape patterns of divergence among as well as gene flow and genetic diversity within three closely related taxa in the genus Clarkia. One taxon is a predominantly autonomous self-fertilizer and the other two taxa are predominantly outcrossing but vary in the primary pollinator they attract. In genotyping populations using genotyping-by-sequencing and comparing loci shared across taxa, our results suggest that differences in reproductive strategies in part promote evolutionary divergence among these closely related taxa. Contrary to expectations, we found that the selfing taxon had the highest levels of heterozygosity but a low rate of polymorphism. The high levels of fixed heterozygosity for a subset of loci suggests this pattern is driven by the presence of structural rearrangements in chromosomes common in other Clarkia taxa. In evaluating patterns within taxa, we found a complex interplay between reproductive strategy and geographic distribution. Differences in the mobility of primary pollinators did not translate to a difference in rates of genetic diversity and gene flow within taxa – a pattern likely due to one taxon having a patchier distribution and a less temporally and spatially reliable pollinator. Taken together, this work advances our understanding of the factors that shape gene flow and the distribution of genetic diversity within and among closely related taxa.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Distribution, sampling, and reproductive strategy for the three study taxon of Clarkia collected from twelve populations across California.
Fig. 2: Genetic divergence and diversity among C. concinna subsp. automixa (blue), Clarkia concinna subsp. concinna (green), and C. breweri (yellow) collected from twelve populations across northern California.
Fig. 3: Within taxa measures of genetic diversity, inbreeding, and effective population size for Clarkia concinna subsp. automixa, Clarkia concinna subsp. concinna, and Clarkia breweri collected from twelve populations across northern California.
Fig. 4: Within taxa measures of population genetic structure for Clarkia concinna subsp. automixa, Clarkia concinna subsp. concinna, and Clarkia breweri collected from twelve populations across northern California.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Relevant data and code have been uploaded to a Dryad repository: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sxksn038b.

References

  • Aldridge G, Campbell DR (2007) Variation in pollinator preference between two Ipomopsis contact sites that differ in hybridization rate. Evolution 61:99–110

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Alexander DH, Novembre J, Lange K (2009) Fast model- based estimation of ancestry in unrelated individuals. Genome Res 19:1655–1664

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Allen GA, Ford VS, Gottlieb LD (1990) A new species of Clarkia concinna (Onagraceae) from Marin County, California. Madroño 37:305–310

    Google Scholar 

  • Anacker BL, Strauss SY (2014) The geography and ecology of plant speciation: Range overlap and niche divergence in sister species. Proc R Soc B: Biol Sci 281:1778

    Google Scholar 

  • Artz DR, Villagra CA, Raguso RA (2010) Spatiotemporal variation in the reproductive ecology of two parapatric subspecies of Oenothera cespitosa (Onagraceae). Am J Bot 97:1498–1510

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team (2020) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria, https://www.R-project.org/

  • Bloom WL (1974) Origin of reciprocal translocations and their effect in Clarkia speciosa. Chromosoma 49:61–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowman RN (1987) Clarkia concinna subsp. automixa (Onagraceae), a new subspecies from the South Bay Region, Central California. Madroño 34:41–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell DR (2008) Pollinator shifts and the origin and loss of plant species. Ann Mo Botanical Gard 95:264–274

    Google Scholar 

  • Castellanos MC, Wilson P, Thomson JD (2007) Pollen transfer by hummingbirds and bumblebees, and the divergence of pollination modes in Penstemon. Evolution 57:2742–2752

    Google Scholar 

  • Catchen J, Hohenlohe PA, Bassham S, Amores A, Cresko WA (2013) Stacks: An analysis tool set for population genomics. Mol Ecol 22:3124–3140

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Catchen JM, Amores A, Hohenlohe P, Cresko W, Postlethwait JH (2011) Stacks: Building and genotyping loci de novo from short- read sequences. G3: Genes, Genomes. Genetics 1:171–182

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Charlesworth B (2009) Fundamental concepts in genetics: Effective population size and patterns of molecular evolution and variation. Nat Rev Genet 10:195–205

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Charlesworth B, Charlesworth D, Barton NH (2003) The effects of genetic and geographic structure on neutral variation. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 34:99–125

    Google Scholar 

  • Cisternas-Fuentes A, Jogesh T, Broadhead GT, Raguso RA, Skogen KA, Fant JB (2022) Evolution of selfing syndrome and its influence on genetic diversity and inbreeding: A range-wide study in Oenothera primiveris. Am J Bot 109(5):789–805

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Coulon A (2010) GENHET: an easy-to-use R function to estimate individual heterozygosity. Mol Ecol Resour 10:167–169

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dellinger AS, Paun O, Baar J, Temsch EM, Fernández-Fernández D, Schönenberger J (2022) Population structure in Neotropical plants: Integrating pollination biology, topography and climatic niches. Mol Ecol 31:2264–2280

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Diaz-Martin Z, Karubian J (2021) Forest cover at landscape scales increases male and female gametic diversity of palm seedlings. Mol Ecol 30:4353–4367

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Diaz-Martin Z, Browne L, Cabrera D, Olivo J, Karubian J (2023) Impacts of flowering density on pollen dispersal and gametic diversity are scale dependent. Am Nat 201:52–64

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Do C, Waples RS, Peel D, Macbeth GM, Tillett BJ, Ovenden JR (2014) NeEstimator v2: re-implementation of software for the estimation of contemporary effective population size (Ne) from genetic data. Mol Ecol Resour 4:209–14

    Google Scholar 

  • Doyle JJ, Doyle JL (1987) A rapid DNA isolation procedure for small quantities of fresh leaf material. Phytochemical Bull 19:11–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Dray S, Dufour A (2007) The ade4 package: implementing the duality diagram for ecologists. J Stat Softw 22:1–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Elshire RJ, Glaubitz JC, Sun Q, Poland JA, Kawamoto K, Buckler ES et al. (2011) A Robust, Simple Genotyping-by-Sequencing (GBS) Approach for High Diversity Species. PLoS ONE 6(5):e19379

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Eschmann-Grupe G, Neuffer B, Hurka H (2004) Extent and structure of genetic variation in two colonising Diplotaxis species (Brassicaceae) with contrasting breeding systems. Plant Syst Evol 244:31–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Gamba D, Muchhala N (2020) Global patterns of population genetic differentiation in seed plants. Mol Ecol 29:3413–3428

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gamba D, Muchhala N (2022) Pollinator type strongly impacts gene flow within and among plant populations for six Neotropical species. Ecol 104(1):e3845

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert KJ, Whitlock MC (2015) Evaluating methods for estimating local effective population size with and without migration. Evol 69:2154–2166

    Google Scholar 

  • Goff KA, Martinez Del Rio C, Kay KM (2021) A greenhouse experiment partially supports inferences of ecogeographic isolation from niche models of Clarkia sister species. Am J Bot 108:2002–2014

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Golczyk H, Massouh A, Greiner S (2014) Translocations of Chromosome End-Segments and Facultative Heterochromatin Promote Meiotic Ring Formation in Evening Primroses. Plant Cell 26:1280–1293

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Goldblatt P, Manning JC (2006) Radiation of pollination systems in the Iridaceae of sub-Saharan Africa. Ann Bot 97:317–344

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb LD, Weeden NF (1979) Gene duplication and phylogeny in Clarkia. Evol 33(4):1024–1039

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Groom MJ (1998) Allee effects limit population viability of an annual plant. Am Nat 151:487–496

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grossenbacher DL, Veloz SD, Sexton JP (2014) Niche and range size patterns suggest that speciation begins in small, ecologically diverged populations in North American monkeyflowers (Mimulus spp.). Evol 68:1270–1280

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamrick JL, Godt MJW (1996) Effects of life history traits on genetic diversity in plant species. Philos Trans R Soc Lond 351:1291–1298

    Google Scholar 

  • Heiser DA, Shaw RG (2006) The fitness effects of outcrossing in Calylophus serrulatus, a permanent translocation heterozygote. Evolution 60:64–76

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hoban S, Paz-Vinasr I, Aitken S, Bertola L, Breed MF, Bruford MW et al. (2021) Effective population size remains a suitable, pragmatic indicator of genetic diversity for all species, including forest trees. Biol Conserv 253:108906

    Google Scholar 

  • Holsinger KE, Ellstrand NC (1984) The evolution and ecology of permanent translocation heterozygotes. Am Nat 124:48–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Hu XS (2015) Mating system as a barrier to gene flow. Evo 69:1158–1177

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Johansen DA (1929) New chromosome numbers in the onagraceae. Am J Bot 16:595

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson MTJ, Smith SD, Rausher MD (2010) Effects of plant sex on range distributions and allocation to reproduction. N. Phytol 186:769–779

    Google Scholar 

  • Jombart T (2008) adegenet: A R package for the multivariate analysis of genetic markers. Bioinformatics 24:1403–1405

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kay KM, Sargent RD (2009) The role of animal pollination in plant speciation: Integrating ecology, geography, and genetics. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 40:637–656

    Google Scholar 

  • Kay KM, Zepeda AM, Raguso RA (2019) Experimental sympatry reveals geographic variation in floral isolation by hawkmoths. Ann Bot 123:405–413

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer AT, Fant JB, Ashley MV (2011) Influences of landscape and pollinators on population genetic structure: Examples from three Penstemon (Plantaginaceae) species in the Great Basin. Am J Bot 98:109–121

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Krauss SL, Phillips RD, Karron JD, Johnson SD, Roberts GD, Hopper SD (2017) Novel consequences of bird pollination for plant mating. Trends Plant Sci 22:395–410

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster LT, Kay KM (2013) Origin and diversification of the California flora: Re-examining classic hypotheses with molecular phylogenies. Evolution 67:1041–1054

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Levin DA (2010) Environment-enhanced self-fertilization: implications for niche shifts in adjacent populations. J Ecol 98:1276–1283

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis H (1953a) The mechanism of evolution in the genus Clarkia. Evol 7:1–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis H (1953b) Chromosome phylogeny and habitat preference of Clarkia. Evolution 7:102–109

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis H, Lewis ME (1955) The genus Clarkia. Univ Calif Publ Bot 20:241–392

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd DG (1992) Self- and cross-fertilization in plants. Int J Plant Sci 153:370–380

    Google Scholar 

  • Lowry DB, Modliszewski JL, Wright KM, Wu CA, Willis JH (2008) The strength and genetic basis of reproductive isolating barriers in flowering plants. Philos Trans R Soc Lond 363:3009–3021

    Google Scholar 

  • MacSwain J, Raven PH, Thorp R (1973) Comparative behavior of bees and Onagraceae. IV. Clarkia bees of the western United States. Univ Calif Publ Entomol 70:1–80

    Google Scholar 

  • Mastretta-Yanes A, Moreno-Letelier A, Piñero D, Jorgensen TH, Emerson BC (2015) Biodiversity in the Mexican highlands and the interaction of geology, geography and climate within the Trans- Mexican Volcanic Belt. J Biogeogr 42:1586–1600

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller TJ, Raguso RA, Kay KM (2014) Novel adaptation to hawkmoth pollinators in Clarkia reduces efficiency, not attraction of diurnal visitors. Ann Bot 113:317–329

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moeller DA, Geber MA (2005) Ecological context of the evolution of self-pollination in Clarkia xantiana: Population size, plant communities, and reproductive assurance. Evolution 59:786–799

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nathan R, Klein E, Robledo-Arnuncio JJ, Revilla E (2012) Dispersal kernels: review. In: Clobert J, Baguette M, Benton TG, Bullock JM eds. Dispersal ecology and evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford, p 187–202

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson TC, Stathos AM, Vanderpool DD, Finseth FR, Yuan YW, Fishman L (2021) Ancient and recent introgression shape the evolutionary history of pollinator adaptation and speciation in a model monkeyflower radiation (Mimulus section Erythranthe). PLoS Genet 17:1–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Niet T, Johnson SD (2012) Phylogenetic evidence for pollinator-driven diversification of angiosperms. Trends Ecol Evol 27:353–361

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nordborg M (1997) Structured coalescent processes on different time scale. Genetics 146:1501–1514

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Nordborg M (2000) Linkage disequilibrium, gene trees and selfing: An ancestral recombination graph with partial self-fertilization. Genetics 154:923–929

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Otto SP, Whitton J (2000) Polyploid incidence and evolution. Annu Rev Genet 34:401–437

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Paris JR, Stevens JR, Catchen JR (2017) Lost in parameter space: a road map for STACKS. Methods. Ecol Evol 8:1360–1373

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson ML, Kay KM (2015) Mating system plasticity promotes persistence and adaptation of colonizing populations of hermaphroditic angiosperms. Am Nat 185:28–43

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pettengill JB, Moeller DA (2012) Phylogeography of speciation: Allopatric divergence and secondary contact between outcrossing and selfing Clarkia. Mol Ecol 21:4578–4592

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pettengill JB, Briscoe Runquist RD, Moeller DA (2016) Mating system divergence aff ects the distribution of sequence diversity within and among populations of recently diverged subspecies of Clarkia xantiana (Onagraceae). Am Nat 103:99–109

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips RD, Peakall R, van der Niet T, Johnson SD (2020) Niche perspectives on plant–pollinator interactions. Trends Plant Sci 25:779–793

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips RD, Steinmeyer F, Menz MH, Erickson TE, Dixon KW (2014) Changes in the composition and behaviour of a pollinator guild with plant population size and the consequences for plant fecundity. Funct Ecol 28:846–856

    Google Scholar 

  • Pichersky E, Gottlieb LD (1983) Evidence for duplication of the structural genes coding plastid and cytosolic isozymes of triose phosphate isomerase in diploid species of Clarkia. Genetics 105:421–436

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Pudovkin AI, Zaykin DV, Hedgecock D (1996) On the potential for estimating the effective number of breeders from heterozygote-excess in progeny. Genet 144:383–387

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Purcell S, Neale B, Todd-Brown K, Thomas L, Ferreira MA, Bender D, Sham PC (2007) PLINK: A tool set for whole- genome association and population-based linkage analyses. Am J Hum Genet 81:559–575

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Raguso RA, Pichersky E (1995) Systematics and Evolution (Onagraceae): recent evolution of floral scent and moth pollination. Plant Syst Evol 194:55–67

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Raguso RA, Pichersky E (1999) A day in the life of a linalool molecule: Chemical communication in a plant-pollinator system. Plant Species Biol 14:95–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Raguso RA, Willis MA (2005) Synergy between visual and olfactory cues in nectar feeding by wild hawkmoths, Manduca sexta. Anim Behav 69:407–418

    Google Scholar 

  • Raven PH (1979) A Survey of Reproductive Biology in Onagraceae. New Zealand J Botany, 8643

  • Rieseberg LH (2001) Chromosomal rearrangements and speciation. TRENDS Ecol Evol 16:351–358

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rousset F (1997) Genetic differentiation and estimation of gene flow from F statistics under isolation by distance. Genet 145:1219–1228

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schemske DW, Bradshaw HD (1999) Pollinator preference and the evolution of floral traits in monkeyflowers (Mimulus). Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 96:21

    Google Scholar 

  • Serbezov D, Jorde PE, Bernatchez L, Olsen EM, Asbjørn Vøllestad L (2012) Short-term genetic changes: Evaluating effective population size estimates in a comprehensively described brown trout (Salmo Trutta) population. Genet 191:579–592

    Google Scholar 

  • Shimizu KK, Cork JM, Caicedo AL, Mays CA, Moore RC, Olsen KM, Ruzsa S, Coop G, Bustamante CD, Awadalla P, Purugganan MD (2004) Darwinian selection on a selfing locus. Science 306:2081–2084

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Skogen KA, Overson RP, Hilpman ET, Fant JB (2019) Hawkmoth pollination facilitates long-distance pollen dispersal and reduces isolation across a gradient of land-use change. Ann Mo Botanical Gard 104:495–511

    Google Scholar 

  • Stebbins L (1970) Adaptive radiation of reproductive characteristics in angiosperms, I: Pollination. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 1:307–326

    Google Scholar 

  • Steinecke C, Gorman CE, Stift M, Dorken ME (2022) Outcrossing rates in an experimentally admixed population of self-compatible and self-incompatible Arabidopsis lyrata. Heredity 128:56–62

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sweigart AL, Willis JH (2003) Patterns of nucleotide diversity in two species of Mimulus are affected by mating system and asymmetric introgression. Evolution 57:2490–2506

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sytsma KJ, Smith JF, Gottlieb LD (1990) Phylogenetics in Clarkia (Onagraceae): restriction site mapping of chloroplast DNA. Syst Bot 15:280–295

    Google Scholar 

  • Waples R, Do C (2010) Linkage disequilibrium estimates of contemporary Ne using highly variable genetic markers: a largely untapped resource for applied conservation and evolution. Evol Appl 3:244–262

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wedberg HL, Lewis H, Venkatesh CS (1968) Translocation Heterozygotes and Supernumerary Chromosomes in Wild Populations of Clarkia williamsonii. Evol 22(1):93–107

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Weir BS, Cockerham CC (1984) Estimating F-Statistics for the analysis of population structure. Evol 38(6):1358–1470

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wessinger CA (2020) From pollen dispersal to plant diversification: genetic consequences of pollination mode. N. Phytol 229:3125–3132

    Google Scholar 

  • Willmott AP, Burquez A (1996) The pollination of Merremia palmeri (Convolvulaceae): can hawk moths be trusted? Am J Bot 83:1050–1056

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright SI, Kalisz S, Slotte T (2013) Evolutionary consequences of self-fertilization in plants. Proc R Soc B: Biol Sci 280:1760

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhdanova OL, Pudovkin AI (2008) Nb_HetEx: A program to estimate the effective number of breeders. J Hered 99:694–695

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Matt Rhodes, Shelley Sianta, Tim Miller, Rick Overson, Tania Jogesh, Evan Hilpman, and Pedro Juárez for assistance with data collection and Rick Overson for assistance with genomic library preparation. We are also grateful to Elinor Gates, Kostas Chloros, and Joseph Halay for facilitating plant collections on the grounds of the UC Lick Observatory. Permission was granted by the National Park Service to collect data and samples at Pinnacles National Park. This work was supported by US National Science Foundation DEB 1342873 to JF and KS and DBI 1461007 to JF. Samples were collected under permits FS-2400-8 and PIN-2014-SCI-003.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

ZDM, ACF, KS, KK, RR, JF conceived and designed the study. ACF, KS, KK, and JF collected the data and determined the methodology. Investigation and visualization were conducted by ZDM. Funding was acquired by KS and JF. Writing of the original draft was completed by ZDM and JF. Writing, review, and editing of the further drafts were completed by ZDM, ACF, KS, KK, RR, and JF.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zoe Diaz-Martin.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Associate editor: Marc Stift.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Diaz-Martin, Z., Cisternas-Fuentes, A., Kay, K.M. et al. Reproductive strategies and their consequences for divergence, gene flow, and genetic diversity in three taxa of Clarkia. Heredity 131, 338–349 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-023-00649-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-023-00649-y

Search

Quick links