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Pollinator-Driven Speciation in Sexually Deceptive Orchids of the Genus Ophrys

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Evolution in Action

Abstract

Ophrys orchids mimic females of their pollinator species to attract male insects for pollination. Reproductive isolation is based on the specific attraction of males of usually a single pollinator species, mostly bees, by mimicking the female species-specific sex-pheromone. Sexually deceptive orchids are ideal candidates for studies of sympatric speciation, because key adaptive traits such as the pollinator-attracting scent are associated with their reproductive success and with premating isolation.

We have investigated processes of ecological speciation by using behavioural experiments and chemical, electrophysiological and population-genetic analyses. We show that minor changes in floral odour bouquets might be the driving force for pollinator shifts and speciation events. New pollinators act as an isolation barrier towards other sympatrically occurring species. Hybridisation occurs because of similar odour bouquets of species and the overlap of flowering periods. Hybrid speciation can also lead to the displacement of species by the hybrid population, if its reproductive success is higher than that in the parental species.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Pierluigi Cortis, Claudia Gack, Cesario Giotta, Manfred Kalteisen, Hannes Paulus, Marcello Piccitto and Antonio Scrugli for helping us to collect plant material. We are also grateful to Walther Vogel and Günter Assum, Institute of Human Genetics, University of Ulm, Philipp M. Schlüter and Tod F. Stuessy, Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Vienna and Salvatore Cozzolino, Department of Structural and Functional Biology, University of Naples for generous support and collaboration in the genetic analysis. Wittko Francke, Dirk Erdmann, Claudia Schulz and Robert Twele, Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Hamburg are gratefully acknowledged for structure elucidation and synthesis of chemical compounds. Julia Gögler was supported by the FAZIT-Stiftung. Financial support was provided by DFG priority program SPP 1127(AY12/1-1, AY12/1-2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Experimental Ecology, University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89069, Ulm, Germany

    Manfred Ayasse, Julia Gögler & Johannes Stökl

  2. Institut für Zoologie, AG Chemische Ökologie, Universität Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053, Regensburg, Germany

    Johannes Stökl

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  1. Manfred Ayasse
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  2. Julia Gögler
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  3. Johannes Stökl
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Correspondence to Manfred Ayasse .

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  1. Museum für Naturkunde, Humboldt Universität Berlin, Invalidenstraße 43, Berlin, 10115, Germany

    Matthias Glaubrecht

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Ayasse, M., Gögler, J., Stökl, J. (2010). Pollinator-Driven Speciation in Sexually Deceptive Orchids of the Genus Ophrys . In: Glaubrecht, M. (eds) Evolution in Action. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12425-9_6

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