Oral Paper

         Macroevolution

Allopolyploidy and pollinator-mediated diversification influence novel floral pigment patterns in North American Silene

Presenting Author
Andrea Berardi
Description
Determining how and why reproductive traits evolve between and within species is key to understanding patterns of speciation. In plants, both genome duplication as well as selection on floral traits, such as color, have been major drivers of angiosperm diversification. Silene (Caryophyllaceae) is a largely white- and pink-flowering diploid genus distributed throughout temperate regions. However, at least two independent genome duplications occurred in the genus’s expansion into North America. Two novel floral pigmentation strategies associated with pollinator attraction arose in the North American polyploids – red flower color associated with hummingbird pollination and UV bullseyes associated with insect pollination. Insights into how these two floral color traits arose as well as the revised phylogeny of North American Silene polyploids are made from target capture of herbarium specimens, gene silencing, and character mapping of floral pigments to answer the following questions: What is the most likely driver of floral color evolution in Silene - pollinator shifts, sympatric competition, abiotic factors, or polyploidy?