Triploidy and its evolutionary significance in Cystopteris protrusa

Abstract

The most widely recognized mode of polyploid formation in homosporous ferns is allopolyploidy. There are taxa, however, that appear to have arisen through atuopolyploidy. Several widely separated collections of the normally diploid species Cystopteris protrusa were found to be triploid. Plants in these collections were morphologically similar to typical, diploid C. protrusa, exhibited a significant number of trivalents during meiosis, and corresponded allozymically to heterozygotes from diploid populations. These plants probably arose through outcrossing between normal, haploid gametes and unreduced, diploid gametes. It is hypothesized that this mechanism of autopolyploid formation is stimulated by environmental stress and may be an intermediate stage in the formation of sexually reproductive tetraploids.