Data from: Multiple introductions, polyploidy and mixed reproductive strategies are linked to genetic diversity and structure in the most widespread invasive plant across Southern Ocean archipelagos ...

• Main Author: Mairal, Mario
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2022
• Subjects: microsatellites; Poa annua L.; sub-Antarctic island; sub-antarctic; FOS: Biological sciences; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zs7h44jdk; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.zs7h44jdk

Biological invasions in remote areas that experience low human activity provide unique opportunities to elucidate processes responsible for invasion success. Here we study the most widespread invasive plant species across the isolated islands of the Southern Ocean, the annual bluegrass, Poa annua. To analyze geographic variation in genome size, genetic diversity, and reproductive strategies, we sampled all major sub-Antarctic archipelagos in this region and generated microsatellite data for 470 individual plants representing 31 populations. We also estimated genome sizes for a subset of individuals using flow cytometry. Occasional events of island colonization are expected to result in high genetic structure among islands, overall low genetic diversity, and increased self-fertilization, but we show that this is not the case for Poa annua. Microsatellite data indicated low population genetic structure and lack of isolation-by-distance among the sub-Antarctic archipelagos we sampled, but high population ... : All P. annua individuals (n = 470) were genotyped using the set of nine microsatellite loci previously developed by us (Mairal et al., 2022). PCR amplification of microsatellites was performed in two multiplex PCR reactions (see Mairal et al., 2022 for details). Given the sensitivity of multiplex reactions to genotyping errors (e.g., allele dropout), we adopted conditions recommended to minimize such errors, including the use of a standardized DNA concentrations (~100 ng/µL), special buffers for multiplexing, and selection of primers with similar annealing temperatures (Guichoux et al., 2011). All PCR reactions were carried out in 15 μL reaction volumes containing 1.5 μL diluted template DNA, 7.5 μL KAPA2G Fast Multiplex Mix (Kapa Biosystems, Cape Town, South Africa), 1.5 μL primer mix (2μM), and 4.5 μL distilled H2O. Samples were amplified using the following PCR conditions: 3 min of denaturation at 95°C, 30 cycles of 15 sec of denaturation at 95°C, 30 sec at multiplex-specific annealing temperature (see ...