Data from: Outcrossing mating system of the early-divergent moonwort fern (Botrychium lunaria, Ophioglossaceae) revealed in the European Alps ...

• Main Authors: Dauphin, Benjamin, Grant, Jason, Farrar, Donald
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2020
• Subjects: gametophytic selfing; sporophytic outcrossing; early vascular plants; Jura; Botrychium lunaria
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.np5hqbzqc; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.np5hqbzqc

Premise of the Research. Vascular plants depend on sexual recombination for generating new genetic variability to meet environmental needs. Nevertheless, members of the early-divergent fern genus Botrychium (Ophioglossaceae) typically maintain gametophytic selfing and show strong inbreeding within populations. To explain this evolutionary anomaly, the existence of previous or current but undiscovered outcrossing, genetically rich, precursors of the existing genetically depauperate taxa has been hypothesized. Methodology. Using allele expression at thirteen independently assorting enzyme loci, we compared allelic diversity and levels of heterozygosity in 471 Botrychium lunaria individuals across sixteen populations in the Alps and Jura Mountains of Switzerland. We examined habitat characteristics influencing mating systems and investigated population genetic structure based on a discriminant analysis of principal components and a graph-theoretic framework. We tested the pattern of isolation by distance and ... : Allozyme data were generated following the procedures of Stensvold & Farrar (2017). As soon as possible after collection, 1 cm of tissue was cut from the base of the leaf stalk and crushed in a buffer solution containing phosphate-polyvinylpyrrolidone (Cronn et al. 1997). The grindate was stored for up to 12 months in microcentrifuge tubes at –80°C until electrophoresis was conducted. Enzyme electrophoresis was performed in horizontal 12% starch gel using the three buffer systems 7, 9, and 11 from Soltis et al. (1983) to reveal allelic variants at 22 loci of ten enzyme systems by differentiating gel migration patterns. Thus, loci of those enzyme systems were resolved for aspartate aminotransferase (AAT) and triose-phosphate isomerase (TPI) with buffer system 7, for malate dehydrogenase (MDH), phosphoglucomutase (PGM), phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (PGD), and phospho-glucoisomerase (PGI) with buffer system 9 and, for aconitase (ACN), diaphorase (DIA), isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH), and shikimate ...