RESUMEN
Among plants, gender dimorphism occurs in about 10% of all angiosperms and more than 50% of all moss taxa, with dwarf males (DM) found exclusively in some unisexual mosses. In this study, we explore the role of male dwarfism as a reproductive strategy in the widespread acrocarpous moss Dicranum scoparium, which has facultative male dwarfism, having both dwarf males (DMs) and normal-sized males (NMs). We retrieved 119 SNP markers from transcriptomes which were used to genotype 403 samples from 11 sites at seven localities in southern Sweden. Our aims were to compare the genetic variability and genetic structure of sexually reproducing populations at different geographic levels (cushion, site, and locality) and compare in particular the relative contribution of females, dwarf males and normal-sized males to the observed genetic diversity. The numbers of DMs differed strongly between sites, but when present, they usually outnumbered both females and NMs. Low genetic differentiation was found at locality level. Genetic differentiation was strongest between cushions for females and NMs and within cushions for DMs indicating small scale structuring and sometimes inbreeding. NMs were more clonal than either DMs or females. Genetic diversity was similar between females and DMs, but lower for NMs. Two haplotypes were shared between females and DMs and one haplotype was shared between a DM and a NM. In conclusion, our results show that DMs and NMs play different roles in reproduction, inbreeding may occur at cushion level, but gene flow is high enough to prevent substantial genetic drift.
RESUMEN
DNA sequences have been widely used for taxonomy, inferring phylogenetic relationships and identifying species boundaries. Several specific methods to define species delimitations based on molecular phylogenies have appeared recently, with the generalized mixed Yule coalescent (GMYC) method being most popular. However, only few studies on land plants have been published so far and GMYC analyses of bryophytes are missing. Dicranum is a large genus of mosses whose (morpho-)species are partly ill-defined and frequently confused. To infer molecular species delimitations, we reconstructed phylogenetic trees based on five chloroplast markers and nuclear ribosomal ITS sequences from 27 out of 30 species occurring in Europe. We applied the species delimitation methods GMYC and Poisson tree processes (PTP) in order to compare their discriminatory power with species boundaries inferred from the molecular phylogenetic reconstructions and with the morphological species concept. Phylogenetic circumscriptions were congruent with the morphological concept for 19 species, while eight species were molecularly not well delimited, mostly forming closely related species pairs. The automated species delimitation methods achieved similar results but tended to overestimate the number of potential species and exposed several incongruences between the morphological concept and inference from molecular phylogenetic reconstructions. It is concluded that GMYC and PTP methods potentially provide a useful and objective way of delimiting bryophyte species, but studies on further bryophyte data sets are necessary to infer whether incongruences might ensue from evolutionary processes and to test the suitability of these approaches.