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A trans-species cytoplasmic polymorphism is associated with seed shape and aridity across multiple species of sunflowers

Gregory L. Owens,Zhe Cai,Natalia Bercovich,Marco Todesco,J. Lee‐Yaw,Loren H. Rieseberg

Published 2025 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

ABSTRACT

Significance Plant cells have three genomes. The largest of these is housed in the nucleus, whereas smaller genomes are found in chloroplasts and mitochondria, which reside in the cytoplasm. Evolutionary histories based on nuclear genes sometimes disagree with those from cytoplasmic genes. In this paper, we uncover the evolutionary mechanisms responsible for this pattern in annual sunflowers. We find that multiple sunflower species share two divergent cytoplasmic lineages due to interspecific hybridization and that the divergent cytoplasms underlie differences in seed shape and likely adaptation to several environmental factors. Thus, despite having distinctive morphologies and karyotypes, sunflower species evolve as a network of adaptive alleles, emphasizing that connectivity via gene flow contributes to the persistence of species on fragmented landscapes.

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