Invasion success in polyploids: the role of inbreeding in the contrasting colonization abilities of diploid versus tetraploid populations of Centaurea stoebe s.l

As a consequence of founder effects, inbreeding can hamper colonization success: First, in species with self-incompatibility controlled by an S-locus, inbreeding may decrease cross-compatibility, mainly due to the sharing of identical S-alleles between closely related mating partners. Secondly, inbreeding can reduce fitness of inbred relative to outbred offspring (i.e. inbreeding depression). Polyploids often show reduced inbreeding depression compared to diploids, which may contribute to the overrepresentation of polyploids among invasive species. This is the first study that tests how the effects of inbreeding differ between geocytotypes (i.e. ploidy levels within a given range).
Our model organism, Centaurea stoebe, is strictly self-incompatible and comprises three geocytotypes: diploids are more frequent than tetraploids in the native range, while only tetraploids occur in the invasive range. We conducted a breeding experiment (sib-mating vs. outcrossing) with 14 native diploid, 13...