Planned intervention: On Wednesday April 3rd 05:30 UTC Zenodo will be unavailable for up to 2-10 minutes to perform a storage cluster upgrade.
Published September 27, 2016 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Salix transect of Europe: variation in ploidy and genome size in willow-associated common nettle, Urtica dioica L. sens. lat., from Greece to arctic Norway

  • 1. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
  • 2. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom
  • 3. Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom

Description

The common stinging nettle, Urtica dioica L. sensu lato, is an invertebrate "superhost", its clonal patches maintaining large populations of insects and molluscs. It is extremely widespread in Europe and highly variable, and two ploidy levels (diploid and tetraploid) are known. However, geographical patterns in cytotype variation require further study.

We assembled a collection of nettles in conjunction with a transect of Europe from the Aegean to Arctic Norway (primarily conducted to examine the diversity of Salix and Salix-associated insects). Using flow cytometry to measure genome size, our sample of 29 plants reveals 5 diploids and 24 tetraploids. Two diploids were found in SE Europe (Bulgaria and Romania) and three diploids in S. Finland. More detailed cytotype surveys in these regions are suggested. The tetraploid genome size (2C value) varied between accessions from 2.36 to 2.59 pg. The diploids varied from 1.31 to 1.35 pg per 2C nucleus, equivalent to a haploid genome size of c. 650 Mbp. Within the tetraploids, we find that the most northerly samples (from N. Finland and arctic Norway) have a generally higher genome size. This is possibly indicative of a distinct population in this region.

Files

BDJ_article_10003.pdf

Files (502.7 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:628848260e1e6105cb181b92f0934387
371.4 kB Preview Download
md5:df3d5213afe958b5df03e918a40d876c
131.4 kB Preview Download

Linked records