Crossability and Genetic Characterization of a North American Representative of
Ipomoea grandifolia
(Convolvulaceae), a Member of
Ipomoea
Series
Batatas
Liao, IT; Fulford, AH; Ostevik, KL; Rausher, MD
Published in: Systematic Botany
Species in the genus
are often difficult to identify due to their similar morphologies and their ability to hybridize with one another. An undescribed North American
morphotype in
series
, referred
here as
Carolina morphotype, was found to be morphologically, genetically, and reproductively isolated from other locally co-occurring
species. A previous phylogenetic analysis that included a broader sampling of species in
series
suggested that
Carolina morphotype may be
, a species described as found only in South America. To evaluate these findings, we tested intrinsic cross-compatibility between
Carolina morphotype and
as well as with
three other co-localizing North American
species:
,
, and
. We also examined genetic differentiation using single nucleotide polymorphisms from leaf transcriptomes from multiple individuals of all five
species and several outgroup species. We find no cross-incompatibility and little genetic differentiation between
Carolina morphotype and
, suggesting that
Carolina morphotype is a representative of
. This finding
raises additional questions about the origins of
in North America and how its disjunct distribution could play a role in the divergence of
in the future.
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