DOI: 10.5061/dryad.sn02v6x1c
title: Hidden hybridization and habitat differentiation ina Mediterranean macrophyte, the euryhaline genus Ruppia

description: In many aquatic plant taxa, classification and identification based on
 morphology has always been difficult. Molecular markers revealed that the
 complexity in several of these aquatic taxa could be addressed to
 recurrent hybridization events and cryptic species diversity. The
 submerged macrophyte genus Ruppia is one of these
 aquatic genera with a complex taxonomy due to the absence of clear
 distinguishable traits and several hybridization events. Two species
 co-exist throughout Europe, R. maritima and R.
 spiralis (previously known as R. cirrhosa), but recent
 molecular studies also found several indications of hybridization,
 introgression and chloroplast capture between these
 species. However, the full extent and frequency of hybridization
 and introgression in this genus has not been studied so far, nor is it
 clear how these hybrid lineages can co-exist locally with their parental
 species. In this paper, we wanted to detect whether a single coastal
 wetland where both species co-exist can act as
 a Ruppia hybrid zone. As a case study, we chose the
 Camargue, a Mediterranean coastal wetland that harbours a wide diversity
 in aquatic habitats, especially in terms of salinity and hydro regime. We
 sampled several Ruppia populations within this wetland.
 To identify each sample and reconstruct the local genetic structure of the
 two parental species and their hybrids, we used both chloroplast and
 nuclear microsatellite markers. Afterwards, we tested whether different
 species had different habitat preferences. Our results confirmed
 that R. maritima and R. spiralis are
 two strongly divergent species with different reproductive ecologies and
 different habitat preferences. This prevents frequent hybridization and
 consequently we could not detect any trace of a recent hybridization
 event. However, we found several populations of later-generation hybrids,
 including a population of R. maritima x
 hybrid backcrosses. These hybrid populations occupy a different
 habitat and are genetically distinct from their parental species, although
 they tend to be morphological similar to parental R. maritima.
 Although hybridization and introgression in Ruppia is
 less frequent than we expected, the taxonomy
 of Ruppia is complicated due to ancient hybridizations
 and several back-crossings.  
description: <i>Ruppia</i> plants were sampled in May
 2014 from 20 locations within the French regional park of the Camargue
 (Figure 1A). In each location, we collected 30 different ramets at 1.5m
 intervals along a linear transect.  Plant DNA was extracted from dried leaf tissue using the E.Z.N.A (R) HP Plant DNA Mini Kit Protocols (Omega bio-tek, Norcross GA, USA).   We used two sets of microsatellites, each set was combined in a multiplex: one comprised species-specific microsatellites for <em style="font-style:normal;">R. maritima</em>, the second multiplex comprised species-specific microsatellites for <i>R. spiralis</i>. Based on species assignment (<em>R. maritima</em>, <em>R. spiralis </em> or hybrid), we used respectively the first, the second or both multiplexes.  We used a QIAGEN multiplex PCR Plus kit to generate DNA-fragments with a PCR reaction in a thermal cycler (MJ research PTC-200 and Bio-Rad My Cycler). These fragments were run on an ABI3730XL sequencer (Macrogen, Seoul, Korea). We manually scored the results with GeneMarker V2.20 (SoftGenetics LLC®) All samples with more than 50% missing values are removed from the dataset, except for the hybrid populations