Publications by authors named "Achyut K Banerjee"

Article Synopsis
  • Polyploidy plays a crucial role in plant evolution, but its origins in intertidal species remain largely unexplored; this study examines three true-mangrove species from the Indo-West Pacific to understand these evolutionary transitions.
  • The research reveals that a tetraploid lineage east of the Thai-Malay Peninsula is morphologically distinct from diploid counterparts and has genetic contributions from two different progenitor species, indicating a complex hybrid speciation history.
  • Environmental models show the new tetraploid species not only shares habitats with diploids but also thrives in new environments, highlighting its adaptability and categorizing it as a novel species with both sexual and clonal reproduction capabilities.
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New alien species are increasingly introduced and established outside their native range. The knowledge of the spatiotemporal dynamics of their accumulation and the factors determining their residence time in the introduced range is critical for proactive management, especially in emerging economies. Based on a comprehensive time series dataset of 721 alien angiosperms in China, we show that new alien flora has been accumulating steadily in China, particularly in the coastal regions, for the last 80 years without saturation.

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Introduction: Phylogenetic relatedness is one of the important factors in the community assembly process. Here, we aimed to understand the large-scale phylogenetic relationship between alien plant species at different stages of the invasion process and how these relationships change in response to the environmental filtering process at multiple spatial scales and different phylogenetic extents.

Methods: We identified the alien species in three invasion stages, namely invasive, naturalized, and introduced, in China.

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The mahogany family, Meliaceae, contains 58 genera with only one mangrove genus: . Two of the three species of the genus are true mangroves ( and ), and one is a non-mangrove (). In order to resolve the phylogenetic relationship between the mangrove and non-mangrove species, we sequenced chloroplast genomes of these species along with two non-mangrove species of the Meliaceae family ( and ) and compared the genome features and variations across the five species.

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Internet trade is increasingly recognized as a dispersal pathway of non-native plant species that is difficult to monitor. We sought to identify non-native flora present in the Chinese online market, the largest e-commerce market globally, and to decipher the effect of existing trade regulations, among other variables, on e-trading patterns and to inform policy. We used a comprehensive list of 811 non-native plant species in China present in 1 of the 3 phases of the invasion continuum (i.

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Kosterm. is a commercially valuable endemic tree species in China and has long been considered a globally vulnerable species. We assembled and characterized the complete chloroplast genome of this species by using Illumina pair-end sequencing data.

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India has numerous invasive alien plant species (IAPSs), which seriously impact biodiversity, ecosystem services, and economic development. The availability of reliable occurrence records of IAPSs is of great importance for their successful management, prediction of distribution across time and space, and other research and development efforts. Global databases of occurrence data, like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), are often not exhaustive, especially for India, and poorly represent the actual distribution of IAPSs in the country.

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Premise: The phylogeography of coastal plant species is shaped by contemporary and historical biogeographic processes. In this study, we aim to decipher the phylogeography of Derris trifoliata, a woody legume of relatively recent origin and wide distribution, in coastal areas in the Indo-West Pacific (IWP) region.

Methods: Genetic diversity and population structure were assessed by analyzing six nuclear and three chloroplast DNA sequences from 30 populations across the species' range.

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This study identified the historical geoclimatic factors which caused low genetic diversity and strong phylogeographic structure in a cryptoviviparous mangrove. The phylogeographic pattern was used to suggest conservation actions. Phylogeographic studies are used to understand the spatial distribution and evolution of genetic diversity, and have major conservation implications, especially for threatened taxa like the mangroves.

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Mangrove forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services, yet they are declining rapidly due to climate change and human activities. Identification of conservation priority targets across spatial and temporal scales may assist in planning and decision making, especially in areas having rich mangrove diversity but with limited response capacity. In this study, we aimed to identify the species and areas which should be prioritized for conservation in the Indo-West Pacific (IWP) region, one of the two global hotspots of mangroves.

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Mangroves are ecologically important forest communities in tropical and subtropical coasts, the effective management of which requires understanding of their phylogeographic patterns. However, these patterns often vary among different species, even among ecologically similar taxa or congeneric species. Here, we investigated the levels and patterns of genetic variation within consisting of two species ( and ) with nearly sympatric ranges across the Indo-West Pacific (IWP) region by sequencing three chloroplast DNA regions (for both species) and genotyping 11 nuclear microsatellite loci (for ).

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Why do some alien plants become naturalized, and some naturalized become invasive? Do different factors determine successful naturalization and invasion? Most, if not all, studies addressing these questions have focused either on the part of the invasion continuum or a specific group of alien species. In this study, we aimed to answer these questions for alien plant invasion in India by considering 13 variables related to biogeography, introduction pathways, uses, functional traits, and distribution for 715 species belonging to three invasion categories. We deciphered the variables' influence on successful naturalization and invasion through a structural equation modeling framework implemented as path analyses and translated the findings to management implications.

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We contend that the exclusive focus on the English language in scientific research might hinder effective communication between scientists and practitioners or policy makers whose mother tongue is non-English. This barrier in scientific knowledge and data transfer likely leads to significant knowledge gaps and may create biases when providing global patterns in many fields of science. To demonstrate this, we compiled data on the global economic costs of invasive alien species reported in 15 non-English languages.

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Phylogeographic forces driving evolution of sea-dispersed plants are often influenced by regional and species characteristics, although not yet deciphered at a large spatial scale for many taxa like the mangrove species . This study aimed to assess geographic distribution of genetic variation of this widespread mangrove in the Indo-West Pacific region and identify the phylogeographic factors influencing its present-day distribution. Analysis of five chloroplast DNA fragments' sequences from 37 populations revealed low genetic diversity at the population level and strong genetic structure of in this region.

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Background And Aims: Mikania micrantha, a climbing perennial weed of the family Asteraceae, is native to Latin America and is highly invasive in the tropical belt of Asia, Oceania and Australia. This study was framed to investigate the population structure of M. micrantha at a large spatial scale in Asia and to identify how introduction history, evolutionary forces and landscape features influenced the genetic pattern of the species in this region.

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is a wild camellia resource endemic to China and is listed as a Vulnerable species globally. Here, we reported and characterized its complete chloroplast (cp) genome by using Illumina pair-end sequencing data. The total chloroplast genome size was 157,001 bp, including inverted repeats (IRs) of 26,042 bp, separated by a large single copy (LSC) and a small single copy (SSC) of 86,622 and 18,295 bp, respectively.

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