Quantitative evaluation of the petal shape variation in Primula sieboldii caused by breeding process in the last 300 years

Primula sieboldii ( E. Morren) has been a popular garden plant at least since the Edo period, about 300 years ago. We compared petal form between cultivars and wild populations in order to characterise the changes that have occurred during domestication. The comparison was made using EF-PCA analysis, which describes overall petal shape mathematically by transforming petal contour coordinates into elliptic Fourier descriptors; it subsequently summarises these descriptors by principal component analysis (PCA). Rearing cultivars in a common-garden experiment identified the PCs with a substantial genetic element. A clear heritable component was detected for the PCs characterising symmetrical variation in flower shape, but not the asymmetrical variation. Wild populations of this species have become endangered owing to habitat destruction by human activity, and many lowland floodplain habitats have been lost. Variation within the remaining wild populations was significantly lower than in the cultivars for PC1 ( aspect ratio), PC3 ( curvature of proximal and distal parts) and petal area; but not for PC2 ( depth of head notch) and PC4 ( position of the centre of gravity). The shifts in petal form from the wild populations to the cultivars parallel those seen in other crop-types following domestication, including an increase in size and diversity of forms: cultivars have shallower head notches, more fan-shaped petals and larger petals than do wild P. sieboldii.