Asexually reproducing organisms are considered to be less adaptive than their sexually reproducing counterparts as they are constrained byreduced genetic variation. Nevertheless, it has been observed that many clonal species are able to occupy larger ranges than their sexualrelatives, a pattern which is called ‘geographical parthenogenesis’. Various hypotheses have been proposed to explain such patterns, but witha limited evidence for any of them mostly due to a few empirical studies. Using diploid sexual and autotriploid asexual Hieracium alpinum(Asteraceae) as a model system and straightforward combination of observational, experimental, embryological, molecular (epigeneticmethylation) and modelling approaches we will test the hypotheses putatively underlying the distributional success of asexual triploids andtheir adaptive potential. Our project will help in understanding of the causal factors of geographical parthenogenesis, an exciting issue ofevolutionary biology, and thus in resolving of paradoxical predominance of sexual reproduction in multicellular organisms.
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