Meeting Abstract
45.4 Wednesday, Jan. 5 AFLP fingerprinting confirms that hybridization contributes genetic diversity to natural populations of pitcher plants ZELNIO, KA*; JARVIS, LK; MCCARTNEY, MA; University of North Carolina, Wilmington; University of North Carolina, Wilmington; University of North Carolina, Wilmington kzelnio@gmail.com
Hybridization is typically viewed as a risk factor in conservation due, for example, to swamping of genomes of threatened natives by hybridization with more common invasive species. Less appreciated is the potential contribution of natural hybridization to the genotypic diversity of threatened populations. We took this approach when setting out to analyze, for the first time, the genetics of putative hybrids between pitcher plants Sarracenia flava and S. purpurea venosa from southeastern North Carolina savannas. We used Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) fingerprints to generate putative species-diagnostic markers from a collection of plants that we scored morphologically to be S. flava and S. purpurea venosa pure parental species, and those we classified to be first-generation hybrids S. x catesbaei. AFLP fingerprints were analyzed by using NewHybrids to differentiate F1, F2, and backcross hybrids from parental genotypes, and by using STRUCTURE as an alternative means to characterize introgression. The results confirmed the hybrid status of all morphological hybrids, but rejected their suspected F1 status and showed them instead to be F2 and backcross hybrids. Furthermore, introgression appears to be unidirectional, with backcrossing to S. flava present (even when not detected morphologically) but backcrossing to S. purpurea venosa absent. These results indicate that the abundant hybrids in our Sarracenia populations are breeding successfully and that introgression is common. Future attempts to use genetic criteria to aid in the conservation of pitcher plant populations should consider the potentially positive contributions of hybridization to genetic diversity.
