title: Variance, Genetic Control, and Spatial Phenotypic Plasticity of Morphological and Phenological Traits inPrunus spinosaand Its Large Fruited Forms (P. x fruticans).
abstract: Prunus spinosais a highly esteemed shrub in forest and landscape plantings. Shrubs with larger organs occur often and are considered either as large fruited forms ofP. spinosaor asP. x fruticans, involving a hybridization process with the ancient cultivatedP. insititia(crop-to-wild gene flow). As climate change may augment hybridization processes in the future, a hybrid origin is important to detect. In addition, studying crop-to-wild gene flow can give insights in putative consequences for the wild populations. We studied theP. spinosa-P. x fruticansgroup, focusing on morphology and phenology in three experimental plantations. Two plantings harbored cuttings ofP. spinosa(clone plantations). A third plantation comprised of a half-sib offspring from a population with bothP. spinosaandP. x fruticans(family plantation). Several results point to a hybridization process as the origin ofP. x fruticans. The clone plantation revealed endocarp traits to be more genetically controlled than fruit size, while this was the opposite in the family plantation, suggesting the control of fruit size being derived from the putativeP. insititiaparent. Bud burst, flower opening, and leaf fall were genetically controlled in the clone plantation, whereas in the family plantation intrafamily variability was remarkably large for the bud burst and leaf fall, but not for the flower opening. This suggests there is a reduced genetic control for the first two phenophases, possibly caused by historic hybridization events. Pubescence on the long shoot leaves in the family plantation deviated from the short shoot leaves on the same plants and from long and short shoot leaves in the clone plantation, suggesting again aP. insititiaorigin. Finally, we quantified spatial phenotypic plasticity, indicating howP. spinosamay react in a changing environment. In contrast to the bud burst and leaf fall, flower opening did not demonstrate plasticity. The fruit size was diminished at the growth site with the shortest growing season while interestingly, the leaf width was enlarged. Leaf size traits appeared more plastic on the long shoots compared to the short shoots, although partitioning of variance did not display a lesser genetic control.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Genetic Resources, Research Institute for Nature and Forest Geraardsbergen, Belgium.
authors.forename: Kristine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vander Mijnsbrugge
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Genetic Resources, Research Institute for Nature and ForestGeraardsbergen, Belgium; Department of Biometrics and Agricultural Informatics, Szent István UniversityBudapest, Hungary; Department of Forest Reproductive Material and Plantation Management, Institute of Silviculture and Forest Protection, West-Hungarian UniversitySopron, Hungary.
authors.forename: Arion
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Turcsán
authors.affiliation: Formerly affiliated with the Department of Biology, Research Group Spermatophytes, Ghent University Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Leander
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Depypere
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Genetic Resources, Research Institute for Nature and Forest Geraardsbergen, Belgium.
authors.forename: Marijke
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Steenackers
keywords: blackthorn; bud burst; crop-to-wild gene flow; damson plum; flower opening; general linear mixed models; leaf senescence; sloe