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Excessive amounts of metal ions in soil are toxic for most plant species, yet metal can also facilitate plant survival by elemental defense against herbivores and pathogens. Zinc and cadmium hyperaccumulation in Arabidopsis halleri is known to be effective for the defense against natural enemies. The allotetraploid species A. kamchatica, derived from A. halleri and a non‐hyperaccumulator A. lyrata, has a lower hyperaccumulation level of zinc than A. halleri, but its significance for elemental defense remains unknown. In this study, we evaluated the accumulation levels of zinc and cadmium in the allotetraploid compared with its diploid progenitors, and evaluated the contribution of metal treatments to anti‐herbivore resistance under field conditions. The accumulation level of zinc in A. kamchatica was intermediate between the progenitors, but that of cadmium was lower than in both diploid progenitors. The elemental defense of A. kamchatica and A. halleri was supported by a field experiment comparing the herbivory level between a control group and metal‐supplemented plants. Moreover, the effect of elemental defense was lower in A. kamchatica than in the hyperaccumulator progenitor A. halleri, which is consistent with the metal accumulation level. This result reveals that the allotetraploid plant inherited its hyperaccumulating ability from one progenitor as an advantageous trait but at an intermediate level.

The self-incompatible species Arabidopsis halleri is a close relative of the self-compatible model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The broad European and Asian distribution and heavy metal hyperaccumulation ability make A. halleri a useful model for ecological genomics studies. We used long-insert mate-pair libraries to improve the genome assembly of the A. halleri ssp. gemmifera Tada mine genotype (W302) collected from a site with high contamination by heavy metals in Japan. After five rounds of forced selfing, heterozygosity was reduced to 0.04%, which facilitated subsequent genome assembly. Our assembly now covers 196 Mb or 78% of the estimated genome size and achieved scaffold N50 length of 712 kb. To validate assembly and annotation, we used synteny of A. halleri Tada mine with a previously published high-quality reference assembly of a closely related species, Arabidopsis lyrata. Further validation of the assembly quality comes from synteny and phylogenetic analysis of the HEAVY METAL ATPASE4 (HMA4) and METAL TOLERANCE PROTEIN1 (MTP1) regions using published sequences from European A. halleri for comparison. Three tandemly duplicated copies of HMA4, key gene involved in cadmium and zinc hyperaccumulation, were assembled on a single scaffold. The assembly will enhance the genomewide studies of A. halleri as well as the allopolyploid Arabidopsis kamchatica derived from A. lyrata and A. halleri.

The habitats of polyploid species are generally distinct from their parental species. Stebbins described polyploids as 'general purpose genotypes', which can tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions. However, little is known about its molecular basis because of the complexity of polyploid genomes. We hypothesized that allopolyploid species might utilize the expression patterns of both parents depending on environments (polyploid plasticity hypothesis). We focused on hydrological niche segregation along fine-scale soil moisture and waterlogging gradients. Two diploid species, Cardamine amara and Cardamine hirsuta, grew best in submerged and unsubmerged conditions, respectively, consistent with their natural habitats. Interestingly, the allotetraploid Cardamine flexuosa derived from them grew similarly in fluctuating as well as submerged and unsubmerged conditions, consistent with its wide environmental tolerance. A similar pattern was found in another species trio: allotetraploid Cardamine scutata and its parents. Using the close relatedness of Cardamine and Arabidopsis, we quantified genomewide expression patterns following dry and wet treatments using an Arabidopsis microarray. Hierarchical clustering analysis revealed that the expression pattern of C. flexuosa clustered with C. hirsuta in the dry condition and with C. amara in the wet condition, supporting our hypothesis. Furthermore, the induction levels of most genes in the allopolyploid were lower than in a specialist diploid species. This reflects a disadvantage of being allopolyploid arising from fixed heterozygosity. We propose that recurrent allopolyploid speciation along soil moisture and waterlogging gradients confers niche differentiation and reproductive isolation simultaneously and serves as a model for studying the molecular basis of ecological speciation and adaptive radiation.

Coupling reaction of β-perfluoroalkyl-substituted alkyl halides with Grignard reagents such as phenyl-, vinyl-, allyl-, benzyl-, and alkyl-magnesium halides was catalyzed by copper salts or complexes to give the corresponding cross-coupling products in good yields. α,ω-Diiodoalkane bearing a polyfluoroalkylene moiety also reacted with 2 equiv. of Grignard reagent in the presence of copper catalyst to give α,ω-bi-functionalized product.

β-Perfluoroalkyl-substituted alkyl halides reacted with organostamnanes such as allylphenylethynyl-, β-phenylethenyl-, and phenyl-tributyltin in the presence of palladium-phosphine complexes to give the corresponding cross-coupling products in good yields. When the reaction was carried out under CO pressure, carbonylative coupling of the halides took place affording the corresponding fluorine-contaming ketones in good yields.

Dehydrogenative silylation of terminal alkynes with hydrosilanes proceeds in the presence of iridium catalyst to afford the corresponding silylacetylenes. When phenylacetylene and triethylsilane were heated in dry DME in the presence of Ir4(CO)12–PPh3, (2-phenylethynyl)triethylsilane was obtained in 96% yield with little of hydrosilylated products. The present method is applicable for a variety of terminal alkynes and hydrosilanes to give the corresponding silylacetylenes in good yields with high selectivities.

Introduction of fluorine atom(s) at the γ- and δ-positions of alkyl iodides increased the selectivities toward palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction with organostannanes. A similar effect of fluorine substituents on the selectivities was also observed in the palladium-catalyzed carbonylative coupling reaction of alkyl iodides with phenyltributyltin under CO pressure.