Ephemerella readeriMüll. Hal. (Physcomitrella readeri(Müll. Hal.) I.G. Stone & G.A.M. Scott, Funariidae, Bryophyta): a genus and species new to Europe

Abstract

A morphological and molecular analysis of a Physcomitrella, collected from a reservoir margin in the north of England, revealed this to be P. readeri, a species new to Europe. The present study clarifies previous confusion over the taxonomy of P. readeri showing it to be clearly distinct in both sporophytic and gametophytic characters from P. patens and uniform across its world range from England to USA, Japan and Australasia. While phylograms of the ITS1 region from both the Physcomitrella species, Physcomitrium pyriforme (Hedw.) Bruch & Schimp., Enthosthodon attenuatus (Dicks.) Bryhn and Funaria hygrometrica Hedw., place the first two in separate clades, in ITS2 phylograms they occur as sister taxa. This, together with previous genealogical studies on the speciation history of the Physcomitrella-Physcomitrium species complex, and morphology, suggests that generic rank is appropriate for P. readeri. We therefore reinstate the original name Ephemerella readeri Mü ll. Hal. Recent records at several reservoirs in England indicate that E. readeri may be native to UK, though remarkable congruence in ITS1 with Australian plants also suggests recent arrival as an alternative possibility.

DNA based revised geographic circumscription of species of Physcomitrella s.l. (Funariaceae): P. patens new to East Asia and P. magdalenae new to East Africa

“…These sequences were included because the information associated with the GenBank accession is incomplete and does not refer to the voucher, hence does not reveal that these belong to the same original specimen. When we compare these publically available sequences to the newly generated ones here, some slight differences are revealed, reflecting either the presence of distinct paralogs among the rDNA repeats (Hooper et al, 2010), or minor sequencing errors. As strains and vouchers are shared among researchers and sequenced, it is important that the redundancy of orthologous sequences from a single voucher can be inferred from the GenBank files, and hence it is critical that the voucher information is included.…”

“…Inferences from variation in DNA sequences already prompted accommodating subsp. readeri in Physcomitridium (Goffinet & Buck 2011;Hooper et al 2010), a name first proposed by Roth (1911), and although P. magdalenae is clearly not sister to Physcomitrella patens (Liu et al 2012), it is premature to introduce a new generic name until the placement of monospecific genera exhibiting intermediate or otherwise distinct patterns of sporophytic reductions (e.g., Cygnicollum Fife & Magill, Bryobeckettia Fife or Loiseaubryum Bizot), is assessed, and thereby the circumscription of all genera within the crown group of Funariaceae. Table 1.…”

“…The nucleotide matrix was analyzed under a twopartition scheme (ITS1 and ITS2 under the K80+G model, and 5.8S under the JC+G+I model), according to Partition Finder results. Our nrITS dataset includes several accessions of some of the strains in the International Moss Stock Center (IMSC) previously published (Hooper et al 2010;Liu et al 2012;McDaniel et al 2010). These sequences were included because the information associated with the GenBank accession is incomplete and does not refer to the voucher, hence does not reveal that these belong to the same original specimen.…”

“…patens) occurs in Eurasia and North America; 2) Physcomitridium readeri (Tan's subsp. readeri and californica) described from Australasia was subsequently reported from a single population from China (Deng-Ku & PanCheng 1995), in western Europe, more specifically England (Hooper et al, 2010), Portugal (Porley & Hodgetts 2012), France and Spain (Infante & Heras 2013), and following the lumping with subsp. californica, also from California (Norris & Shevock 2004a) and Japan; and 3) Physcomitrella magdalenae (Tan's subsp.…”

“…McDaniel et al (2010) showed that the three taxa (patens, readeri and magdalenae) had each a distinct but still ambiguous affinity to species of Physcomitrium. Based on phylogenetic patterns in the nuclear ITS sequences and morphological traits, Hooper et al (2010) transferred P. patens subsp. readeri to the resurrected genus Ephemerella Müll.…”