Repeatedly Northwards and Upwards : Southern African Grasslands Fuel the Colonization of the African Sky Islands in Helichrysum (Compositae)
Blanco-Gavaldà, Carme (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)
Galbany-Casals, Mercè (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)
Susanna, Alfonso (Institut Botànic de Barcelona)
Andrés-Sánchez, Santiago (University of Salamanca. Department of Botany and Plant Physiology and Plant DNA Biobank)
Bayer, Randall J. (University of Memphis. Department of Biological Sciences, Center for Biodiversity)
Brochmann, Christian (University of Oslo. Natural History Museum)
Cron, Glynis V. (University of the Witwatersrand. School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences)
Bergh, Nicola G. (South African National Biodiversity Institute)
Garcia-Jacas, Núria (Institut Botànic de Barcelona)
Gizaw, Abel (Addis Ababa University. Department of Plant Biology and Biodiversity Management)
Kandziora, Martha (Charles University in Prague. Department of Botany)
Kolář, Filip (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)
López-Alvarado, Javier (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)
Leliaert, Frederik (Meise Botanic Garden)
Letsara, Rokiman (Herbarium of the Parc Botanique et Zoologique of Tsimbazaza)
Moreyra, Lucía D. (Institut Botànic de Barcelona)
Razafimandimbison, Sylvain G. (Swedish Museum of Natural History. Department of Botany)
Schmickl, Roswitha (Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)
Roquet, Cristina (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)

Date:	2023
Abstract:	The Afromontane and Afroalpine areas constitute some of the main biodiversity hotspots of Africa. They are particularly rich in plant endemics, but the biogeographic origins and evolutionary processes leading to this outstanding diversity are poorly understood. We performed phylogenomic and biogeographic analyses of one of the most species-rich plant genera in these mountains, Helichrysum (Compositae-Gnaphalieae). Most previous studies have focused on Afroalpine elements of Eurasian origin, and the southern African origin of Helichrysum provides an interesting counterexample. We obtained a comprehensive nuclear dataset from 304 species (≈50% of the genus) using target-enrichment with the Compositae1061 probe set. Summary-coalescent and concatenation approaches combined with paralog recovery yielded congruent, well-resolved phylogenies. Ancestral range estimations revealed that Helichrysum originated in arid southern Africa, whereas the southern African grasslands were the source of most lineages that dispersed within and outside Africa. Colonization of the tropical Afromontane and Afroalpine areas occurred repeatedly throughout the Miocene-Pliocene. This timing coincides with mountain uplift and the onset of glacial cycles, which together may have facilitated both speciation and intermountain gene flow, contributing to the evolution of the Afroalpine flora.
Grants:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2019-105583GB-C22 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2021/SGR-00315 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2022/FI_B-00150
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Afroalpine ; Afromontane ; Biogeography ; Asteraceae ; Long-distance dispersal ; Evolution ; Helichrysum ; Phylogeny ; Target-enrichment
Published in:	Plants, Vol. 12, Issue 11 (June 2023) , art. 2213, ISSN 2223-7747

DOI: 10.3390/plants12112213
PMID: 37299192

24 p, 2.9 MB

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