Chloroplast capture in Clarkia xantiana xantiana and Clarkia xantiana parviflora
Introgression is when genetic material from one gene pool gets incorporated into another gene pool. Introgression of chloroplast genomes is when one species inherits the chloroplast genome of another species, termed chloroplast capture. Clarkia xantiana ssp. xantiana and Clarkia xantiana ssp. parviflora are subspecies that diverged around 65,000 years ago. We hypothesized that chloroplast capture is likely occurring between the two subspecies in sympatric areas, where they co-occur. In this study, we performed a phylogenetic analysis with the chloroplast genomes of the subspecies to determine whether chloroplast capture occurred. We found that gene flow occurred asymmetrically from mainly the selfing species, ssp. parviflora, into the outcrossing species, ssp. xantiana.