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(American Journal of Botany. 2010;97:123-135.) doi: 10.3732/ajb.0800332 © 2010 Botanical Society of America, Inc.

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Self-sterility in two Cytisus species (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae) due to early-acting inbreeding depression¹

² Área de Botánica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Extremadura, Avda. de Elvas, s.n. 06071-Badajoz, Spain ³ Área de Fisiología Vegetal, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Extremadura, Avda. de Elvas, s.n. 06071-Badajoz, Spain

ABSTRACT

In most angiosperms, the endosperm develops before the embryo, but with harmony between the two structures until final seed formation. In an embryological study, we show that inbreeding depression causes disharmony in development of the two structures in two Leguminosae shrubs, Cytisus multiflorus and C. striatus. Our main objective was to test the causes of self-sterility in the two species by comparing the embryological development of the self seeds with that of cross seeds. In developing selfed seeds of C. multiflorus, the embryo reaches at most the globular stage and never forms mature seeds, while in C. striatus a few mature selfed seeds are formed. In both species, the main cause of abortion of developing selfed seeds is diminished endosperm development (low values of the ratio of endosperm to embryo), which triggers collapse of the endosperm and embryo. The results indicate that self-sterility in C. striatus is postzygotic because of strong, early inbreeding depression, while in C. multiflorus there exists a mixed pre- and postzygotic mechanism; the prezygotic mechanism causes rejection of some self-pollen tubes in the style/ovary, and the early inbreeding depression triggers abortion of fertilized ovules that escaped that action.

Key Words: abortion • Cytisus multiflorus • Cytisus striatus • embryogeny failures • inbreeding depression • late-acting self-incompatibility • Leguminosae • Mediterranean region • self-sterility

Received for publication 1 October 2008. Accepted for publication 23 September 2009.

FOOTNOTES

¹ The authors thank Dr. M. González (University of Extremadura) for statistical assistance. Suggestions and comments by two anonymous reviewers and the associate editor greatly improved the manuscript. This work was financed by the Ministry of Education and Science of Spain (projects BOS2002-00703 and CGL2005-00783/BOS, both co-financed by ERDF). A predoctoral grant from that Ministry to F.J.V. (BES-2003-2187) is greatly appreciated.

⁴ Author for correspondence (aortega{at}unex.es)

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