Morphometric, phylogenetic and biogeographic analyses ofPyrularia(Santalales), a parasitic disjunct lineage between eastern Asia and eastern North America

Abstract

Pyrularia is a small parasitic genus of the Santalales with two to five species exhibiting a well-known classical intercontinental disjunct distribution between eastern Asia (EA) and eastern North America (ENA). Pyrularia and another santalaceous genus Buckleya represent the only two parasitic plant lineages with the EA-ENA disjunction. The present study was carried out to assess the species number and molecular and morphological differentiation in Pyrularia, and to reconstruct the biogeography of the Pyrularia clade (Pyrularia and its close allies) using dating and biogeographic inferences. A phylogenetic analysis based on two nuclear and seven plastid markers strongly supported the monophyly of Pyrularia and revealed two highly distinct subclades corresponding to EA and ENA within the genus. Incongruent topologies within the eastern Asian lineage were found between the nuclear and the plastid datasets, which may be attributed to incomplete lineage sorting. Morphometric and phylogenetic analyses suggest that Pyrularia in eastern Asia may best be treated as a single species, P. edulis. Molecular dating based on four markers suggested that the divergence time between the intercontinental species was in the late Miocene at 5.58 Ma (95% HPD: 2.08-11.72 Ma), which was close to the split of the trans-Pacific clades within the other parasitic EA-ENA disjunct genus Buckleya. The EA-ENA disjunction in the only two parasitic genera may have resulted from the fragmentation of the mesophytic temperate forests in the late Miocene. The Pyrularia clade (including the close allies of Pyrularia) was inferred to have originated in Africa, then dispersed to Asia, and subsequently to North America via the Bering land bridge, resulting in the current intercontinental EA-ENA distribution of Pyrularia.Supporting Information may be found online in the Supporting Information section at the end of the article. Fruit peduncle relatively slender relatively robust and short relatively slender relatively robust and short Distribution widespread in eastern Asia (China,

Plastome phylogenomics and historical biogeography of aquatic plant genus Hydrocharis (Hydrocharitaceae)

“…One dispersal event was from Central Africa to Europe and Central Asia, probably via the last direct connection between Eurasia and Africa prior to the Miocene. The rapid climate change during the Miocene likely resulted in the isolation of H. chevalieri, as well as contributed to the extinction of many Hydrocharis species in Europe, as also proposed for Pyrularia [44], Allioideae [45] and some Compositae groups [46]. And other one dispersal route from Europe and Central Asia to America, East and Southeast Asia.…”

Parasitic angiosperms: How often and how many?

“…Following the survey of fossil pollen identified as Anacolosidites Cookson & Pike , Malécot & Lobreau‐Callen () reduced the number of species to 12 that are phenetically related to modern Anacolosa Blume (Aptandraceae, Olacaceae s.l.). These fossil pollens and others from Misodendraceae and Loranthaceae (Magallón & al., ; Grímsson & al., ), have allowed reliable calibration points for divergence time estimations (Vidal‐Russell & Nickrent, ; Liu & al., ; Zhou & al., ). Stem and crown estimations of Santalales family divergence times were summarized from various studies that represent 15 of the 20 families (suppl.…”

Reconstruction of the evolutionary biogeography reveals the origin and diversification of Arisaema (Araceae)

“…These tropical forests could have extended much further north than extant forests, enabling floristic exchanges between Africa and Asia in both directions (Wolfe 1975;Morley 2000). This hypothesis has been used to explain the disjunction between Asia and Africa in some angiosperm families (Davis et al 2002(Davis et al , 2005Weeks et al 2005;Lu et al 2013;Liu et al 2018;Zhou et al 2019). However, the time of this expansion of boreotropical forests did not coincide with the Asian -African divergence time of Arisaema during the late Miocene.…”