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    Home > Biochemistry News > Biotechnology News > The study of the history of phylogeny and diversification of Rhododendron genus has made new progress in the plant of Kunming

    The study of the history of phylogeny and diversification of Rhododendron genus has made new progress in the plant of Kunming

    • Last Update: 2022-10-20
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    Rhododendron is the largest woody plant genus in the northern hemisphere and the largest genus of seed plants in China.
    There are
    more than 1,000 species in the world, including about 5,90 species in China
    。 Rapid radiation evolution and frequent natural hybridization events
    make the taxonomic and phylogenetic studies of Rhododendron genus a great challenge
    .
    The Hengduan Mountains and Himalayas are the global distribution of rhododendrons and one of the centers of differentiation, with more than 320 species in this genus, of which about two-thirds are endemic to the region
    。 Therefore, the diverse history of the rhododendron genus
    in the Hengduan Mountains and Himalayas has been attracting
    attention.
     

    Recently, the team of Gao Lianming and Li Debao, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, collaborated with Dr.
    Richard Milne of the University of Edinburgh and Professor Peter Hollingsworth of the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh Extensive sampling of Rhododendron species yielded a total of 161 in 12 groups of all 8 subgenera of Rhododendron species Shallow genomic data for each species, containing about 45% of the species of the genus in the Hengduan Mountains and Himalayas
    。 Based on chloroplast genome data,
    the phylogenetic relationship and diversity history
    of Rhododendron genus were explored by phylogenetic reconstruction, differentiation time estimation and species diversity rate.
     

    The results show that the chloroplast genome can well solve the phylogenetic relationship
    between subgenera and most species of Rhododendron genus.
    Compared with the previous phylogeny inferred based on chloroplast genome and nuclear genome data, it was found that Rhododendron
    included 13 stable monophyletic branches.
    The strong conflict between nuclear and plastid phylogeny suggests that deep branching may have occurred Reticular evolutionary events
    such as hybridization/gene intellation.
    Subgenus R.
    subg.
    leaf bract (R.
    subg .
    Therorhodion) in the Eocene (c.
    56 Mya).
    It first differentiates and passes through the Eocene and Oligocene (about 32 My a ) was a relatively short period (about 6 my) in the early Miocene (23.
    8 ~ 17.
    6
    Mya a) rapidly diversified to form 10 clades of the core genus Rhododendron (12 clades in total
    ).
    The diversity histories of the two subgenera (representing more than 90per cent of the species in the region) with the Hengduan Mountains and the Himalayan region as the centres of differentiation are different.

    Rhododendron
    subgenus (R.
    subg Rhododendron) originated in the early Miocene (20.
    1 Mya
    ), with a rate of diversification in the subsequent ().
    About 16.
    6 mya) increased significantly, after which (about 13.
    7
    mya) it redifferentiated to adapt to high altitudes (Clade RH) and adapted to the lower altitude (Clade RL), which is the same as Hengduan Mountain - The continuous geological tectonic events in the middle Miocene (about 17 ~ 14 mya) in the Himalayas coincide
    with uplift to close to the present altitude.
    Continuous active orogeny, climate cooling, and intensified Asian summer monsoon have contributed to the formation of parallel radiation speciation
    in these two branches.
    Another subgenus, R.
    subg.
    (R.
    subg.
    ) with the Hengduan Mountains and Himalayan regions as the center of differentiation
    Hymenanthes) originated late in the early Miocene (1 9.
    5 mya),
    and its crown group was in the late Miocene (about 10 m ya) began to diverge, and the rate of diversification began more slowly, spreading to Hengduan Mountain in the morning Miocene (about 5 Mya).
    - Rapid radiation differentiation occurs in the Himalayas, with a net diversification rate nearly 5 times higher than that of the subgenus Rhododendron species.

    This is most likely due to its spread in the Hengduan Mountains and Himalayas, where global cooling and monsoon strengthening during the Pliocene may have directly affected the rate
    of differentiation.
    The subgenus Evergreen Rhododendron contains only species adapted to high altitudes, but most of them The clade has species adapted to both low and high altitudes; Compared with the Rhododendron subgenus, its altitude preference plasticity is stronger, indicating that the subgenus has strong ecological plasticity in the process of diversification
    .
    This study provides an important case study
    for understanding the history of species diversity formation and adaptive evolution in the Hengduanshan-Himalayan region.
     

    The research results are based on Resolution, conflict and rate shifts: insights from a densely sampled plastome phylogeny for Rhododendron (Ericaceae) was published in Annals of Botany, a mainstream journal of botany, with doctoral students Dr.
    Mo Zhiqiong and Dr.
    Fu Chaonan as the first authors of the paper, and researcher Gao Lianming and researcher Li Debao as the corresponding authors
    of the paper.
     

    The research was supported by the Category B Pilot Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB31000000), the Large Science Apparatus of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2017-LSFGBOWS-02), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32000173 , 91631101, 31670213), Yunnan Province Basic Research Special Major Project (202101BC070003) and Yunnan Province Postdoctoral Directional Training Funding Project ( E132711261).

     

    Link to the article 

     

    Fig.
    1
    Rhododendron phylogenetic tree constructed based on chloroplast genome 

     

    Fig.
    2
    Rhododendron differentiation time and diversification rate inferred based on chloroplast genome 

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