Species delimitation and biogeography of a southern hemisphere liverwort clade, Frullania subgenus Microfrullania (Frullaniaceae, Marchantiophyta).

Frullania subgenus Microfrullania is a clade of ca. 15 liverwort species occurring in Australasia, Malesia, and southern South America. We used combined nuclear and chloroplast sequence data from 265 ingroup accessions to test species circumscriptions and estimate the biogeographic history of the subgenus.

Organellar phylogenomics of an emerging model system: Sphagnum (peatmoss).

Background And Aims: Sphagnum-dominated peatlands contain approx. 30 % of the terrestrial carbon pool in the form of partially decomposed plant material (peat), and, as a consequence, Sphagnum is currently a focus of studies on biogeochemistry and control of global climate. Sphagnum species differ in ecologically important traits that scale up to impact ecosystem function, and sequencing of the genome from selected Sphagnum species is currently underway.

Increased diversification rates follow shifts to bisexuality in liverworts.

Shifts in sexual systems are one of the key drivers of species diversification. In contrast to angiosperms, unisexuality prevails in bryophytes. Here, we test the hypotheses that bisexuality evolved from an ancestral unisexual condition and is a key innovation in liverworts.

Endemism in the moss flora of North America.

Premise Of The Study: Identifying regions of high endemism is a critical step toward understanding the mechanisms underlying diversification and establishing conservation priorities. Here, we identified regions of high moss endemism across North America. We also identified lineages that contribute disproportionately to endemism and document the progress of efforts to inventory the endemic flora.

The resurrection of Neohattoria Kamim. (Jubulaceae, Marchantiophyta): a six decade systematic conflict resolved through a molecular perspective.

The systematic placement of Frullaniaherzogii has been contentious since its description six decades ago. Over the years it has been interpreted as either a member of the genus Frullania or segregated into its own genus, Neohattoria, due to morphological similarities with both Frullania and Jubula. Here we provide molecular evidence that supports the recognition of the genus Neohattoria and its inclusion within the Jubulaceae, together with Jubula and Nipponolejeunea.

Origins, genetic structure, and systematics of the narrow endemic peatmosses (Sphagnum): S. guwassanense and S. triseriporum (Sphagnaceae).

Premise Of The Study: Sphagnum dominates vast expanses of wetland habitats throughout the northern hemisphere and species delimitation within the genus is important because floristic changes associated with a warming global climate may have measureable impacts on large-scale ecological processes. Most northern hemisphere peatmoss species (Sphagnum) have circumboreal ranges, but the Japanese species generally known as S. calymmatophyllum is endemic to Honshu Island.

A phylogeny of the northern temperate leafy liverwort genus Scapania (Scapaniaceae, Jungermanniales).

Scapania is a northern temperate genus with a few disjunctions in the south. Despite receiving considerable attention, the supraspecific classification of this genus remains unsatisfactorily solved. We use three molecular markers (nrITS, cpDNA trnL-F region, atpB-rbcL spacer) and 175 accessions belonging to 50 species (plus eight outgroup taxa) to estimate the phylogeny and to test current classification systems.

Frequent pseudogenization and loss of the plastid-encoded sulfate-transport gene cysA throughout the evolution of liverworts.

Premise Of The Study: The presence or absence of a functional copy of a plastid gene may reflect relaxed selection, and may be phylogenetically significant, reflecting shared ancestry. In some liverworts, the plastid gene cysA is a pseudogene (inferred to be nonfunctional). We surveyed 63 liverworts from all major clades to determine whether the loss of cysA is phylogenetically significant, whether intact copies of cysA are under selective constraints, and whether rates of nucleotide substitution differ in other plastid genes from taxa with and without a functional copy of cysA.

Formalizing morphologically cryptic biological entities: new insights from DNA taxonomy, hybridization, and biogeography in the leafy liverwort Porella platyphylla (Jungermanniopsida, Porellales).

Premise Of The Study: Recognition and formalization of morphologically cryptic species is a major challenge to modern taxonomy. An extreme example in this regard is the Holarctic Porella platyphylla s.l.

Newly resolved relationships in an early land plant lineage: Bryophyta class Sphagnopsida (peat mosses).

Premise Of The Study: The Sphagnopsida, an early-diverging lineage of mosses (phylum Bryophyta), are morphologically and ecologically unique and have profound impacts on global climate. The Sphagnopsida are currently classified in two genera, Sphagnum (peat mosses) with some 350-500 species and Ambuchanania with one species. An analysis of phylogenetic relationships among species and genera in the Sphagnopsida were conducted to resolve major lineages and relationships among species within the Sphagnopsida.

Morphologically cryptic biological species within the liverwort Frullania asagrayana.

Premise Of The Study: The Frullania tamarisci complex includes eight Holarctic liverwort species. One of these, F. asagrayana, is distributed broadly throughout eastern North America from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

Bryophyte diversity and evolution: windows into the early evolution of land plants.

The "bryophytes" comprise three phyla of plants united by a similar haploid-dominant life cycle and unbranched sporophytes bearing one sporangium: the liverworts (Marchantiophyta), mosses (Bryophyta), and hornworts (Anthocerophyta). Combined, these groups include some 20000 species. As descendents of embryophytes that diverged before tracheophytes appeared, bryophytes offer unique windows into the early evolution of land plants.

A multi-locus molecular phylogeny of the Lepidoziaceae: laying the foundations for a stable classification.

The Lepidoziaceae, with over 700 species in 30 genera, is one of the largest leafy liverwort families. Despite receiving considerable attention, the composition of subfamilies and genera remains unsatisfactorily resolved. In this study, 10 loci (one nuclear 26S, two mitochondrial nad1 and rps3, and seven chloroplast atpB, psbA, psbT-psbH, rbcL, rps4, trnG and trnL-trnF) are used to estimate the phylogeny of 93 species of Lepidoziaceae.

North American origin and recent European establishments of the amphi-Atlantic peat moss Sphagnum angermanicum.

Genetic and morphological similarity between populations separated by large distances may be caused by frequent long-distance dispersal or retained ancestral polymorphism. The frequent lack of differentiation between disjunct conspecific moss populations on different continents has traditionally been explained by the latter model, and has been cited as evidence that many or most moss species are extremely ancient and slowly diverging. We have studied intercontinental differentiation in the amphi-Atlantic peat moss Sphagnum angermanicum using 23 microsatellite markers.

Phylogeny of the leafy liverwort Ptilidium: cryptic speciation and shared haplotypes between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

The small, phylogenetically isolated liverwort genus Ptilidium has been regarded as of cool-Gondwanic origin with the bipolar, terrestrial Ptilidium ciliare giving rise to the Northern Hemisphere epiphytes Ptilidium pulcherrimum and Ptilidium californicum. This hypothesis is examined using a dataset including three chloroplast DNA regions from 134 Ptilidium accessions and one accession each of its closest relatives Trichocoleopsis and Neotrichocolea. Maximum likelihood and parsimony analyses point to a close relationship between P.

One species or at least eight? Delimitation and distribution of Frullania tamarisci (L.) Dumort. s. l. (Jungermanniopsida, Porellales) inferred from nuclear and chloroplast DNA markers.

Frullania tamarisci is usually regarded as a polymorphic, holarctic-Asian liverwort species with four allopatric subspecies [subsp. asagrayana, moniliata, nisquallensis and tamarisci]. This hypothesis is examined using a dataset including sequences of the nuclear internal transcribed spacer region and the plastid trnL-trnF and atpB-rbcL regions of 88 accessions of F.

Peatmoss (Sphagnum) diversification associated with Miocene Northern Hemisphere climatic cooling?

Global climate changes sometimes spark biological radiations that can feed back to effect significant ecological impacts. Northern Hemisphere peatlands dominated by living and dead peatmosses (Sphagnum) harbor almost 30% of the global soil carbon pool and have functioned as a net carbon sink throughout the Holocene, and probably since the late Tertiary. Before that time, northern latitudes were dominated by tropical and temperate plant groups and ecosystems.

A phylogenetic delimitation of the "Sphagnum subsecundum complex" (Sphagnaceae, Bryophyta).

A seemingly obvious but sometimes overlooked premise of any evolutionary analysis is delineating the group of taxa under study. This is especially problematic in some bryophyte groups because of morphological simplicity and convergence. This research applies information from nucleotide sequences for eight plastid and nuclear loci to delineate a group of northern hemisphere peat moss species, the so-called Sphagnum subsecundum complex, which includes species known to be gametophytically haploid or diploid (i.