• Sex ratio polymorphism has been extensively studied in Silene latifolia, but it is neither known whether inbreeding (which is likely to occur under field conditions) affects it nor which of the proposed mechanisms (Y degeneration, X-linked drive) is more important. Both mechanisms predict reduced pollen performance. • In this study, females were crossed with pollen from related and unrelated ...

Here we introduce a new model species, Silene colpophylla, that could facilitate research of sex chromosome evolution and sex-determining systems. This species is related to the well-established dioecious plant model Silene latifolia. Our results show that S. colpophylla is, similarly to S. latifolia, a male heterogametic species, but its sex chromosomes have evolved from a different pair of au...

Nuclear DNA content variation over orders of magnitude across species has been attributed to 'junk' repetitive DNA with limited adaptive significance. By contrast, our previous work on Silene latifolia showed that DNA content is negatively correlated with flower size, a character of clear adaptive relevance. The present paper explores this relationship in a broader phylogenetic context to inves...

The detection of incipient host-shifts is important to the study of emergent diseases because it allows the examination of ecological and genetic conditions that favor novel inter-species transmission. Mixed populations of Silene latifolia and Silene vulgaris were investigated for the putative occurrence of host-shifts by the fungal plant pathogen Microbotryum violaceum (the cause of anther-smu...

Silene dioica is a dioecious plant of the family Caryophyllaceae. In the present study, we used Illumina sequencing technology (MiSeq) to sequence, de novo assembly and annotate the transcriptomes of male and female copper tolerant S. dioica individuals. We sequenced the normalized mRNA of roots, shoots, flower buds and flowers for each sex. Raw reads of the transcriptome assembly project for S...

The sex chromosomes of dioecious white campion, Silene latifolia (Caryophyllaceae), are of relatively recent origin (10-20 million years), providing a unique opportunity to trace the origin and evolution of sex chromosomes in this genus by comparing closely related Silene species with and without sex chromosomes. Here I demonstrate that four genes that are X-linked in S. latifolia are also link...

Floral odor is a key trait for pollinator attraction in many plants, but may also direct antagonists like herbivores to flowers. In this study, we examined how floral scent changes after pollination in Silene latifolia, which has a specialized relationship with the seed predator Hadena bicruris. We found an overall decrease in total scent emission and considerable changes in relative amounts of...