Malagasy Dracaena Vand. ex L. (Ruscaceae): an investigation of discrepancies between morphological features and spatial genetic structure at a small evolutionary scale

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_BDE5F16EFE2B
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Malagasy Dracaena Vand. ex L. (Ruscaceae): an investigation of discrepancies between morphological features and spatial genetic structure at a small evolutionary scale
Journal
Plant Systematics and Evolution
Author(s)
Buerki S., Callmander M.W., Schuepfer F., Ravokatra M., Kuepfer P., Alvarez N.
ISSN
0378-2697
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2009
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
280
Number
1-2
Pages
15-28
Language
english
Abstract
Malagasy Dracaena (Ruscaceae) are divided into four species and 14 varieties, all of them showing a high level of morphological diversity and a putatively artefactual circumscription. In order to reveal relationships between those entangled entities, a span of Malagasy Dracaena were sampled and analyzed using cpDNA sequences and AFLP. The cpDNA analyses resolved three biogeographic clades that are mostly inconsistent with morphology, since similar phenotypes are found across the three clades. Bayesian inference clustering analyses based on the AFLP were not in accordance with the cpDNA analysis. This result might be explained by ( 1) a recent origin of the Malagasy species of Dracaena with an incomplete sorting of chloroplast lineages; ( 2) a high amount of hybridizations; ( 3) a complex migration pattern. Interestingly, when the AFLP are analyzed using the parsimony criterion, a trend towards a directional evolution of inflorescence types and ecological features was observed. This might be considered either as phenotypic plasticity and/or as the result of fast evolution in flower characters according to habitat preferences. Overall, our results point to the difficulty of defining evolutionarily significant units in Malagasy Dracaena, emphasizing the complex speciation processes taking place in tropical regions.
Keywords
AFLP, Biogeography, cpDNA, Incomplete lineage sorting, Malagasy Dracaena, Phenotypic plasticity
Web of science
Create date
18/04/2010 11:27
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:32
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