학술논문

Species‐specific effects of production practices on genetic diversity in plant reintroduction programs
Document Type
article
Source
Evolutionary Applications, Vol 16, Iss 12, Pp 1956-1968 (2023)
Subject
genomics
plant conservation
plant propagation
seed dormancy
seed germination
wild violets
Evolution
QH359-425
Language
English
ISSN
1752-4571
Abstract
Abstract Plant production practices can influence the genetic diversity of cultivated plant materials and, ultimately, their potential to adapt to a reintroduction site. A common step in the plant production process is the application of seed pretreatment to alleviate physiological seed dormancy and successfully germinate seeds. In production settings, the seeds that germinate more rapidly may be favored in order to fill plant quotas. In this study, we investigated how the application of cold‐moist stratification treatments with different durations can lead to differences in the genetic diversity of the propagated plant materials. Specifically, we exposed seeds of three Viola species to two different cold stratification durations, and then we analyzed the genetic diversity of the resulting subpopulations through double‐digestion restriction site‐associated sequencing (ddRADseq). Our results show that, in two out of three species, utilizing a short stratification period will decrease the genetic diversity of neutral and expressed loci, likely due to the imposition of a genetic bottleneck and artificial selection. We conclude that, in some species, the use of minimal stratification practices in production may jeopardize the adaptive potential and long‐term persistence of reintroduced populations and suggest that practitioners carefully consider the evolutionary implications of their production protocols. We highlight the need to consider the germination ecology of target species when selecting the length of dormancy‐breaking pretreatments.