Comprehensive phylogenomic time tree of bryophytes reveals deep relationships and uncovers gene incongruences in the last 500 million years of diversification
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: PREMISE: Bryophytes form a major component of terrestrial plant biomass, structuring ecological communities in all biomes. Our understanding of the evolutionary history of hornworts, liverworts, and mosses has been significantly reshaped by inferences from molecular data, which have highlighted extensive homoplasy in various traits and repeated bursts of diversification. However, the timing of key events in the phylogeny, patterns, and processes of diversification across bryophytes remain unclear. METHODS: Using the GoFlag probe set, we sequenced 405 exons representing 228 nuclear genes for 531 species from 52 of the 54 orders of bryophytes. We inferred the species phylogeny from gene tree analyses using concatenated and coalescence approaches, assessed gene conflict, and estimated the timing of divergences based on 29 fossil calibrations. RESULTS: The phylogeny resolves many relationships across the bryophytes, enabling us to resurrect five liverwort orders and recognize three more and propose 10 new orders of mosses. Most orders originated in the Jurassic and diversified in the Cretaceous or later. The phylogenomic data also highlight topological conflict in parts of the tree, suggesting complex processes of diversification that cannot be adequately captured in a single gene-tree topology. CONCLUSIONS: We sampled hundreds of loci across a broad phylogenetic spectrum spanning at least 450 Ma of evolution; these data resolved many of the critical nodes of the diversification of bryophytes. The data also highlight the need to explore the mechanisms underlying the phylogenetic ambiguity at specific nodes. The phylogenomic data provide an expandable framework toward reconstructing a comprehensive phylogeny of this important group of plants.
Source: American Journal of Botany
DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.16249
Authors: Julia Bechteler, Gabriel Peñaloza‐Bojacá, David Bell, J. Gordon Burleigh, Stuart F. McDaniel, E. Christine Davis, Emily B. Sessa, Alexander Bippus, D. Christine Cargill, Sahut Chantanoarrapint, Isabel Draper, Lorena Endara, Laura L. Forrest, Ricardo Garilleti, Sean W. Graham, Sanna Huttunen, Javier Jauregui Lazo, Francisco Lara, Juan Larraín, Lily R. Lewis, David G. Long, Dietmar Quandt, Karen Renzaglia, Alfons Schäfer‐Verwimp, Gaik Ee Lee, Adriel M. Sierra, Matt von Konrat, Charles E. Zartman, Marta Regina Pereira, Bernard Goffinet, Juan Carlos Villarreal A.
Institutions: University of Bonn, Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, University of Florida, Cal Poly Humboldt, Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, Australian National Herbarium, Prince of Songkla University, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universitat de València, University of British Columbia, University of Turku, University of California, Davis, Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Université Laval, Field Museum of Natural History, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Universidade do Estado do Amazonas, University of Connecticut
Language: English
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,000
Awards: Collaborative Research: Building a Comprehensive Evolutionary History of Flagellate Plants, Collaborative Research: Building a Comprehensive Evolutionary History of Flagellate Plants, Collaborative Proposal: Diversity of Physcomitrium pyriforme in North America and Europe: significance of autopolyploidy within a phylogenomic and experimental framework, G5640062967
OpenAlex ID: W4387326464