Past climate changes and geographical barriers: the evolutionary history of a subtropical highland grassland species of Solanaceae, Petunia altiplana

Autor: Luana S Soares, Nelson J R Fagundes, Loreta B Freitas
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 201:510-529
ISSN: 1095-8339
0024-4074
DOI: 10.1093/botlinnean/boac051
Popis: Climate changes and associated glacial and interglacial cycles during the Quaternary strongly influenced the evolutionary history of countless number of species. Subtropical highland grasslands (SHG) in southern South America constitute a distinct vegetation type with high diversity and endemism rates. The most recent common ancestor of the genus Petunia (Solanaceae) originated in lowland grasslands, and some lineages secondarily migrated to SHG. Here, we describe the evolutionary history of an SHG species, P. altiplana, distributed throughout a wide area in a river-fragmented landscape. We used plastid and nuclear markers to evaluate the role of the Pelotas River and Quaternary climate cycles over the genetic structure and historical demography of this species based on a phylogeographical approach. We found moderate population expansions during the last 25 kyr, with a more recent (c. 1.6 kya) divergence between two groups of populations from opposite river margins, possibly caused by the expansion of the Araucaria Forest along the river valley, effectively isolating distinct grassland patches.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:
Nepřihlášeným uživatelům se plný text nezobrazuje