In the eastern Amazon lives Daphnopsis filipedunculata, a plant with a complicated sex life. The plants are dioecious, meaning that they have male or female flowers. They cannot pollinate themselves, so they have to swap genes – but they’re not successful very often. So how does the species survive? A paper by da Silva Carvalho and colleagues shows that a lot of their success comes from cloning.
The key finding of the paper is that a lot of Daphnopsis filipedunculata‘s reproductive success doesn’t come from the flowers, but from the other end of the plant, the roots. Open pollination of flowers only led to them setting seed in 23% of the flowers. However, the roots also help reproduction by producing new shoots that become new copies of the original plant, known as a ramet.
The team found this out by collecting leaf samples from 49 Daphnopsis filipedunculata plants in the Amazon. The team analysed the plants’ DNA to identify clones and measure genetic diversity. They also analysed the anatomy of the plants to determine where new ramets sprang from.
The discovery that Daphnopsis filipedunculata balances sexual reproduction with cloning puts it alongside many other plants that have independently adopted this form of reproduction. Cloning helps plants survive in environments where sexual reproduction is difficult. However, too much cloning can reduce genetic diversity, which is crucial for adapting to changes. The study underlines the importance of considering genetic diversity in conservation programmes.
Carvalho, C. S., da Costa, L. E. N., Leal, B. S. S., Silva, K. R., Valentin-Silva, A., Costa, A. C. G., Tyski, L., dos Santos, F. M. G., & Watanabe, M. T. C. (2024). Mating system, morphological, and genetic evidence endorse clonality as an essential reproductive mode in Daphnopsis filipedunculata (Thymelaeaceae), a dioecious and endemic species from the Amazon. AoB PLANTS, 16(1), plae048. https://doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plae048
