UMR 5175 Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, CNRS, Montpellier, France.
Dipartimento di Scienze della Natura e del Territorio, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
Plant Biol (Stuttg). 2018 Jan;20 Suppl 1:128-138. doi: 10.1111/plb.12595. Epub 2017 Sep 28.
Hybridisation plays a prominent role in plant evolution due to its influence on genetic diversity, fitness and adaptive potential. We identify a case of on-going hybrid evolution of floral phenotypes in disjunct populations of Cyclamen balearicum and C. repandum subsp. repandum on Corsica and Sardinia. Hybrid populations on the two islands contain similar patterns of variation in flower colour and size but are probably at different stages in the evolutionary process of hybridisation, and differences in the frequency of floral types and flower size suggest hybrid vigour that may contribute to the dynamics and maintenance of hybrid forms. In a review of cases of hybridisation in Mediterranean plants we found an equivalent number of cases for the contemporary occurrence of mixed hybrid populations, as there are cases of homoploid hybrid species differentiation. We argue for the development of a conservation strategy for Mediterranean plants that integrates the need to protect not just pure endemic species (some of hybrid origin) but also mixed populations where adaptive variation and new species are evolving due to contemporary hybridisation.
杂交在植物进化中起着重要作用，因为它影响遗传多样性、适应性和潜在适应能力。我们发现巴利阿里报春（Cyclamen balearicum）和报春花（C. repandum subsp. repandum）在科西嘉岛和撒丁岛的不连续种群中，正在进行花部表型的杂交进化。这两个岛屿上的杂交种群在花的颜色和大小方面存在相似的变异模式，但可能处于杂交进化过程的不同阶段，而且在花型和花大小的频率上存在差异，表明杂种优势可能有助于杂种形式的动态和维持。在对地中海植物杂交案例的综述中，我们发现混合杂交种群的当代发生案例数量与同源多倍体杂种物种分化的案例数量相当。我们主张为地中海植物制定保护策略，不仅要保护纯粹的特有种（其中一些是杂交起源的），还要保护由于当代杂交而正在进化的混合种群，因为这些混合种群中存在适应性变异和新物种。
