Insights into long-distance dispersal and ecological and morphological evolution in the fern genusMicrogrammafrom phylogenetic inference
- 8 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
- Vol. 196 (3), 294-312
- https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boaa107
Abstract
The epiphytic fern genus Microgramma (Polypodiaceae) comprises 30 species occurring mainly in the Neotropics, but with one species in Africa, an example of trans-Atlantic disjunction. Morphologically and ecologically, Microgramma presents a wide range of variation that is not seen in the most closely related genera. Recent studies have changed the circumscription of Microgramma to better conform with phylogenetic evidence, but no comprehensively sampled study has addressed the evolution of this lineage. The present study aimed to investigate phylogenetic relationships, ecology and morphological evolution and to test the role of long-distance dispersal in Microgramnza. Sequences from five plastid regions were used to infer the phylogenetic relationships and estimate divergence times. Our results show five clades in Microgramma that do not corroborate any previously proposed infrageneric classification system. Several morphological traits appear to be homoplastic, including leaf dimorphism. Tuber-like myrmecodomatia are suggested to be synapomorphic for one lade, although ant-plant associations appear in two lineages. Microgramma lycopodioides in the Neotropics and M. mauritiana in Africa, once thought to be conspecific, are not closely related, with the African species nested in an Atlantic Forest Glade, indicating a long-distance dispersal event estimated to have occurred c. 15 Mya from South America to Africa, followed by speciation.Keywords
Funding Information
- Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (478723/2010-5, 563568/2010, 555226/2010-7, 202160/2011-4)
This publication has 85 references indexed in Scilit:
- Ultrafast Approximation for Phylogenetic BootstrapMolecular Biology and Evolution, 2013
- Geneious Basic: An integrated and extendable desktop software platform for the organization and analysis of sequence dataBioinformatics, 2012
- Bayesian Phylogenetics with BEAUti and the BEAST 1.7Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2012
- MrBayes 3.2: Efficient Bayesian Phylogenetic Inference and Model Choice Across a Large Model SpaceSystematic Biology, 2012
- Evidence for a Cenozoic radiation of ferns in an angiosperm-dominated canopyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2009
- Unraveling the phylogeny of polygrammoid ferns (Polypodiaceae and Grammitidaceae): exploring aspects of the diversification of epiphytic plantsMolecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 2004
- MUSCLE: multiple sequence alignment with high accuracy and high throughputNucleic Acids Research, 2004
- Intrafamilial Relationships of the Thelypteroid Ferns (Thelypteridaceae)American Fern Journal, 2002
- Universal primers for amplification of three non-coding regions of chloroplast DNAPlant Molecular Biology, 1991
- Estimating the Dimension of a ModelThe Annals of Statistics, 1978