Emergence of a floral colour polymorphism by pollinator-mediated overdominance

Roman T. Kellenberger; Kelsey J. R. P. Byers; Rita M. De Brito Francisco; Yannick M. Staedler; Amy M. LaFountain; Jürg Schönenberger; Florian P. Schiestl; Philipp M. Schlüter

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-07936-x

Nature Communications (Jan 2019)

Emergence of a floral colour polymorphism by pollinator-mediated overdominance

Roman T. Kellenberger,
Kelsey J. R. P. Byers,
Rita M. De Brito Francisco,
Yannick M. Staedler,
Amy M. LaFountain,
Jürg Schönenberger,
Florian P. Schiestl,
Philipp M. Schlüter

Affiliations

Roman T. Kellenberger: Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich
Kelsey J. R. P. Byers: Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich
Rita M. De Brito Francisco: Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zurich
Yannick M. Staedler: Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna
Amy M. LaFountain: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut
Jürg Schönenberger: Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna
Florian P. Schiestl: Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich
Philipp M. Schlüter: Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07936-x
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Examples of overdominance are usually explained by deleterious effects in homozygotes. Here, Kellenberger et al. describe a case of overdominance in the floral color of the Alpine orchid Gymnadenia rhellicani apparently maintained by pollinator preferences without deleterious effects in homozygotes.

Published in Nature Communications

ISSN: 2041-1723 (Online)
Publisher: Nature Portfolio
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science
Website: https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

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