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Genome size and chromosome number of ten plant species from Kerguelen Islands

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A Correction to this article was published on 20 November 2020

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Abstract

Kerguelen Islands harbor a unique, probably very ancient flora with a high rate of endemism. However, the evolutionary history and characteristics of this flora still require investigation. This concerns in particular genome size and ploidy level variation, despite the evolutionary and ecological significance of those traits. Here we report the first assessment of genome size, using flow cytometry, for eight plant species of which two are endemics of Kerguelen Islands and four of the South Indian Ocean Province. The 2C DNA value ranged from 1.08 pg for Pringlea antiscorbutica to 11.88 pg for Ranunculus biternatus. The chromosome numbers of Colobanthus kerguelensis (2n = 80), Lyallia kerguelensis (2n = 96) and Poa kerguelensis (2n = 28) were also reported in this study for the first time. Overall, our data allowed to infer that all Kerguelen studied species are polyploid (from tetra- to octopolyploid). Intra-genus comparisons showed significant differences of 2C DNA values among Poa and among Ranunculus species, despite their identical ploidy level. In addition, our data highlight the existence of an intraspecific variability of genome size for the two octoploid species Colobanthus kerguelensis and Lyallia kerguelensis. Finally, our data also support the hypothesis regarding which polyploidy may have played a major role in the adaptation of flowering plants to high latitudes, as it has been suggested for arctic species.

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  • 20 November 2020

    The original article was published with missing information in Table 1. The complete Table 1 is now provided: this correction stands to correct the original article

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Acknowledgement

The present research project No 1116 PlantEvol (resp. F. Hennion) was performed at Kerguelen station and was supported by the French Polar Institute (IPEV). This research was also supported by CNRS IRP grant “AntarctPlantAdapt” (F. Hennion). We thank B. Labarrere, L. Marchand (UMR ECOBIO, Rennes, France) and G. Bouger (UMS OSUR, Rennes, France), V. Normand (UMR ESE, Orsay, France), K. Delord (Centre d’études biologiques de Chizé, CNRS, France), IPEV logistics, and Réserve naturelle Terres Australes et Antarctiques françaises for help in material collection during the summer campaigns (2015-2019). We thank Experimental Ecology platform (ECOLEX) of Ecobio lab, T. Fontaine-Breton, F. Nassur and R. Bodiguel for help in plant cultivation in the phytotron, T. Fontaine-Breton and O. Lima for leaf collection for flow cytometry. The authors thank B. Robert for his help in statistical analyses and Dr. M. Bourge for his expert assistance in flow cytometry on the Platform of Cytometry, Institute of Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), Gif-sur-Yvette. Finally, we would like to thank Dr Dieter Piepenburg, Editor-in-chief of Polar Biology and three reviewers (Dr Joan Vallès, Dr Teresa Garnatje and one anonymous reviewer) for their constructive comments that have fully contributed to improving our manuscript.

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SS-Y and FH conceived the ideas. FL, FH and TR collected the samples. SS-Y, NV and NT performed the flow cytometry measurement. FH cultivated the plants in the field and in the laboratory in Rennes and FH and VG collected and treated the root samples for karyology. SSY performed the chromosome counts. TR performed data analysis. SS-Y wrote the manuscript with contributions from TR, FH and NT. All the authors read and approved the manuscript. SS-Y, TR and FH revised the manuscript following comments from the Editor and three reviewers.

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Correspondence to Sonja Siljak-Yakovlev.

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Siljak-Yakovlev, S., Lamy, F., Takvorian, N. et al. Genome size and chromosome number of ten plant species from Kerguelen Islands. Polar Biol 43, 1985–1999 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02755-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02755-7

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