Polyploidy can increase colonization ability – Lessons from diploid and tetraploid spotted knapweed -Centaurea stoebe

Polyploid plants show a higher probability to become invasive than diploids, however, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Early-acting invasion filters may offer high explanatory power in understanding such biogeographical patterns, because they can inherently determine whether founder populations fail or succeed in colonizing a novel range. Christoph’s talk aims to contri-bute to a more complete understanding of the processes that shape the colonization success of polyploids. His model organism, the polyploid complex Centaurea stoebe s.l., comprises three so-called geo-cytotypes: monocarpic diploids are more frequent than poly-carpic (allo)tetraploids in the native range (Eurasia), whereas only tetraploids are reported from the invasive range (North America).