Travel Tales of a Worldwide Weed: Genomic Signatures of L. Reveal Distinct Genotypic Groups With Links to Colonial Trade Routes.

Retracing pathways of historical species introductions is fundamental to understanding the factors involved in the successful colonization and spread, centuries after a species' establishment in an introduced range. Numerous plants have been introduced to regions outside their native ranges both intentionally and accidentally by European voyagers and early colonists making transoceanic journeys; however, records are scarce to document this. We use genotyping-by-sequencing and genotype-likelihood methods on the selfing, global weed, , collected from 50 populations worldwide to investigate how patterns of genomic diversity are distributed among populations of this global weed.

Molecular and Morphological Data Improve the Classification of Plantagineae (Lamiales).

The tribe Plantagineae (Lamiales) is a group of plants with worldwide distribution, notorious for its complicated taxonomy and still unresolved natural history. We describe the result of a broadly sampled phylogenetic study of tribe. The expanded sampling dataset is based on the L-F spacer, L, and ITS2 markers across all three included genera (, and ) and makes this the most comprehensive study to date.

Stem and Leaf Anatomy of (Plantaginaceae): In Search of Lost Rays.

is a shrubby genus endemic to páramo in the northern Andes representing the sister group to and . Stem and leaf structure of were studied to clarify the evolutionary pathways and ecological significance of their anatomical traits. and share a non-fascicular primary vascular system, rayless wood and secondary phloem, and anomocytic stomata.

First Phylogeny of Bitterbush Family, Picramniaceae (Picramniales).

Picramniaceae is the only member of Picramniales which is sister to the clade (Sapindales (Huerteales (Malvales, Brassicales))) in the rosidsmalvids. Not much is known about most aspects of their ecology, geography, and morphology. The family is restricted to American tropics.

The application of high-throughput sequencing for taxonomy: The case of Plantago subg. Plantago (Plantaginaceae).

Plantago is a cosmopolitan genus including over 250 species, concentrated in temperate and high-elevation tropical regions. The taxonomy of Plantago is very difficult, mainly because of its reduced morphology, which features relatively few characters for species classification. Consequently, the infrageneric classification of the genus remains controversial and inadequate.

Changes in the composition of the RNA virome mark evolutionary transitions in green plants.

Background: The known plant viruses mostly infect angiosperm hosts and have RNA or small DNA genomes. The only other lineage of green plants with a relatively well-studied virome, unicellular chlorophyte algae, is mostly infected by viruses with large DNA genomes. Thus RNA viruses and small DNA viruses seem to completely displace large DNA virus genomes in late branching angiosperms.

All that is gold does not glitter? Age, taxonomy, and ancient plant DNA quality.

More than 600 herbarium samples from four distantly related groups of flowering plants were used for DNA extraction and subsequent measurements of DNA purity and concentration. We did not find any significant relation between DNA purity and the age of the sample. However, DNA yields were different between plant groups studied.

Haptanthus story: rediscovery of enigmatic flowering plant from Honduras.

Premise Of The Study: Finding a plant or animal that was previously considered extinct is a fortunate (but rare) event in biology. Haptanthus hazlettii was collected from Honduras (Central America) in 1980, but numerous attempts to re-collect it have failed. Reproductive organs of Haptanthus are unique among angiosperms and make the search for phylogenetic relations difficult.

Endophytes influence protection and growth of an invasive plant.

We investigated the symbiotic activities of fungal endophytes isolated from spotted knapweed, Centaurea stoebe. Previously, an analysis of community similarity had demonstrated differences in the endophyte communities of C. stoebe in its native and invaded ranges.

Hidden diversity of endophytic fungi in an invasive plant.

Fungal endophytes are important in plant ecology and common in plants. We attempted to test cointroduction and host-jumping hypotheses on a community basis by comparing endophytes isolated from invasive spotted knapweed (Centaurea stoebe, Asteraceae) in its native and invaded ranges. Of 92 combined, sequence-based haplotypes representing eight classes of Fungi, 78 occurred in only one of the two ranges.

Dactylorhiza (Orchidaceae) in European Russia: combined molecular and morphological analysis.

Four plastid and two nuclear (internal transcribed spacer [ITS] ribosomal DNA) markers were used in this study of the Dactylorhiza maculata and D. incarnata complexes (Orchidaceae: Orchidinae) to determine diversity and taxonomic distribution of haplotypes, hybridization frequencies, and maternal parentage of hybrids in 125 samples from 78 populations from European Russia and the Caucasus. A morphometric study of all populations revealed significant correspondence between morphological and plastid DNA data.