What explains high plant richness in East Asia? Time and diversification in the tribe Lysimachieae (Primulaceae).

What causes the disparity in biodiversity among regions is a fundamental question in biogeography, ecology, and evolutionary biology. Evolutionary and biogeographic processes (speciation, extinction, dispersal) directly determine species richness patterns, and can be studied using integrative phylogenetic approaches. However, the strikingly high richness of East Asia relative to other Northern Hemisphere regions remains poorly understood from this perspective.

Corrigendum: Patterns of diversification amongst tropical regions compared: a case study in Sapotaceae.

[This corrects the article on p. 362 in vol. 5, PMID: 25520736.

Patterns of diversification amongst tropical regions compared: a case study in Sapotaceae.

Species diversity is unequally distributed across the globe, with the greatest concentration occurring in the tropics. Even within the tropics, there are significant differences in the numbers of taxa found in each continental region. Manilkara is a pantropical genus of trees in the Sapotaceae comprising c.

On the biogeography of Centipeda: a species-tree diffusion approach.

Reconstructing the biogeographic history of groups present in continuous arid landscapes is challenging due to the difficulties in defining discrete areas for analyses, and even more so when species largely overlap both in terms of geography and habitat preference. In this study, we use a novel approach to estimate ancestral areas for the small plant genus Centipeda. We apply continuous diffusion of geography by a relaxed random walk where each species is sampled from its extant distribution on an empirical distribution of time-calibrated species-trees.

Species tree phylogeny and character evolution in the genus Centipeda (Asteraceae): evidence from DNA sequences from coding and non-coding loci from the plastid and nuclear genomes.

A species tree phylogeny of the Australian/New Zealand genus Centipeda (Asteraceae) is estimated based on nucleotide sequence data. We analysed sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA (ETS, ITS) and three plasmid loci (ndhF, psbA-trnH, and trnL-F) using the multi-species coalescent module in BEAST. A total of 129 individuals from all 10 recognised species of Centipeda were sampled throughout the species distribution ranges, including two subspecies.

Phylogenetic relationships and generic delimitation in Inuleae subtribe Inulinae (Asteraceae) based on ITS and cpDNA sequence data.

Phylogenetic relationships in Inuleae subtribe Inulinae (Asteraceae) were investigated. DNA sequence data from three chloroplast regions (ndhF, trnL-F and psbA-trnH) and the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region were analysed separately and in combination using parsimony and Bayesian inference. A total of 163 ingroup taxa were included, of which 60 were sampled for all four markers.

Phylogenetic analysis of sexual systems in Inuleae (Asteraceae).

From an ancestor with bisexual flowers, plants with unisexual flowers, or even unisexual individuals have evolved in different lineages of angiosperms. The Asteraceae tribe Inuleae includes hermaphroditic, monoecious, dioecious, and gynomonoecious species. Gynomonoecy, the sexual system in which female and bisexual flowers occur on the same plant, is prevalent in the Asteraceae.

Relationships of Anagallis foemina and A. arvensis (Myrsinaceae): new insights inferred from DNA sequence data.

We investigated the relationship between Anagallis arvensis and A. foemina using nuclear and plastid molecular data. Information from the nuclear rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and four different chloroplast loci; ndhF, trnL-F, rpl16, and rps16 was analysed using both parsimony and Bayesian inference.

Boreotropical migration explains hybridization between geographically distant lineages in the pantropical clade Sideroxyleae (Sapotaceae).

To determine whether the fragmented pantropical distribution of present day Sideroxyleae primarily is the result of long-distance dispersals or represents the remnants of a once continuous distribution in the northern hemisphere, the boreotropical flora, we used phylogenetic analyses of chloroplast and nuclear ribosomal DNA data, Bayesian molecular dating, and Bayesian estimation of ancestral areas. Incongruence between the two data sets was examined with a nuclear low copy gene phylogeny to discover any occurrences of reticulate evolution. The Pacific clade Nesoluma was shown to have two distinct copies of the nuclear low copy gene AAT, one from an African and one from an American ancestral lineage, indicating that it is of allopolyploid origin.

Evolution of Lecythidaceae with an emphasis on the circumscription of neotropical genera: information from combined ndhF and trnL-F sequence data.

The Lecythidaceae comprise a pantropical family best known for the edible seeds of the Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) and the cannon-ball tree (Couroupita guianensis), which is planted as a botanical curiosity in subtropical and tropical gardens. In addition, species of the family are often among the most common in neotropical forests, especially in the Amazon Basin. The Brazil nut family is diverse and abundant in the Amazon and is considered to be an indicator of undisturbed or scarcely disturbed lowland forests; thus, what is learned about its evolution, ecology, and biogeography may suggest similar patterns for other Amazonian tree families.

Accounting for variation of substitution rates through time in Bayesian phylogeny reconstruction of Sapotoideae (Sapotaceae).

We used Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of 5 kb of chloroplast DNA data from 68 Sapotaceae species to clarify phylogenetic relationships within Sapotoideae, one of the two major clades within Sapotaceae. Variation in substitution rates through time was shown to be a very important aspect of molecular evolution for this data set. Relative rates tests indicated that changes in overall rate have taken place in several lineages during the history of the group and Bayes factors strongly supported a covarion model, which allows the rate of a site to vary over time, over commonly used models that only allow rates to vary across sites.

Phylogeny, character evolution, and classification of Sapotaceae (Ericales).

We present the first cladistic study of the largely tropical family Sapotaceae based on both morphological and molecular data. The data were analyzed with standard parsimony and parsimony jackknife algorithms using equally and successive weighted characters. Sapotaceae are confirmed to constitute two main evolutionary lineages corresponding to the tribes Isonandreae-Mimusopeae-Sideroxyleae and Chrysophylleae-Omphalocarpeae.

Phylogenetic relationships among New Caledonian Sapotaceae (Ericales): molecular evidence for generic polyphyly and repeated dispersal.

The phylogeny of a representative group of genera and species from the Sapotaceae tribe Chrysophylleae, mainly from Australia and New Caledonia, was studied by jackknife analyses of sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA. The phylogeny conflicts with current opinions on generic delimitation in Sapotaceae. Pouteria and Niemeyera, as presently circumscribed, are both shown to be nonmonophyletic.

Phylogenetics of asterids based on 3 coding and 3 non-coding chloroplast DNA markers and the utility of non-coding DNA at higher taxonomic levels.

Asterids comprise 1/4-1/3 of all flowering plants and are classified in 10 orders and >100 families. The phylogeny of asterids is here explored with jackknife parsimony analysis of chloroplast DNA from 132 genera representing 103 families and all higher groups of asterids. Six different markers were used, three of the markers represent protein coding genes, rbcL, ndhF, and matK, and three other represent non-coding DNA; a region including trnL exons and the intron and intergenic spacers between trnT (UGU) to trnF (GAA); another region including trnV exons and intron, trnM and intergenic spacers between trnV (UAC) and atpE, and the rps16 intron.

Phylogenetic relationships in the order Ericales s.l.: analyses of molecular data from five genes from the plastid and mitochondrial genomes.

Phylogenetic interrelationships in the enlarged order Ericales were investigated by jackknife analysis of a combination of DNA sequences from the plastid genes rbcL, ndhF, atpB, and the mitochondrial genes atp1 and matR. Several well-supported groups were identified, but neither a combination of all gene sequences nor any one alone fully resolved the relationships between all major clades in Ericales. All investigated families except Theaceae were found to be monophyletic.

THE GENUS PEGOLETTIA (COMPOSITAE, INULEAE).

Abstract- The genus Pegolettia (Compositae, Inuleae) from Africa, Arabia, and the Middle East is revised. The nine recognized species, viz. P.