Abstract Detail

From the backbone to diversification: unraveling the evolutionary history of Ericales

Goncalves, Deise [1], Larson, Drew [2], Chanderbali, Andre [3], Walker, Joseph [4], Soltis, Douglas [5], Soltis, Pamela [6], Li, Pan [7], Smith, Stephen [8].

Phylogenomics of Ericales.

Ericales is a cosmopolitan clade that comprises more than 12,000 species in 340 genera and 22 families . Species in the order are ecologically, economically, and culturally important and present a vast morphological variation. The clade includes Amazonian hyperdominant species like Eschweilera coriacea (Lecythidaceae), narrow endemics like Capurodendron (Sapotaceae) from Madagascar, as well as species that are currently extinct in nature, like Franklinia alatamaha (Theaceae). Despite enormous efforts to resolve the phylogenetic relationships among families of the order, the backbone of the group is still controversial, which may be due to rapid radiation and ancient genome duplications. We generated transcriptome sequences for 96 species, most of which belonged to ericalean genera for which there is no previously sequenced transcriptome. We combined our data with 47 publicly available transcriptomes and 11 nuclear genomes, including six samples that served as outgroups. Our dataset therefore includes 154 species representing 42% of the ericalean genera. Phylogenies based on 1,729 orthologous genes were largely congruent with previous studies based on nuclear data and also recovered low support values and short branch lengths at early-diverging nodes. Phylogenies based on plastome data were incongruent with the nuclear phylogeny, including regarding the position of Pentaphylacaceae + Sladeniaceae. Analyses of conflicting signals between 10,325 homologs and the orthologous genes were in agreement with the incongruences at deeper nodes of the phylogeny. We found support for at least four independent cases of partial or whole genome duplications by exploring Ks plots and tree-based analyses. Nodes with support for duplications and other nodes with signs of moderate duplications (putative duplications of genes or short regions of chromosomes) are being annotated for further investigation. We will use functional annotations from publicly available nuclear genomes to look for signatures of synteny after genome duplications, which would provide additional support for putative duplications. Intensive exploration of all nuclear data available for the order will provide information on areas of the tree that should be further explored to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships. The data and results from this study will be useful to guide projects furthering our understanding of the evolutionary history of ericalean families.

1 - University Of Michigan, Ecology And Evolutionary Biology, 800 Fuller St. APT #16, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
2 - University of Michigan
3 - University of Florida
4 - University of Illinois Chicago, Biological Sciences, 845 W. Taylor St., Chicago, IL, 60607, USA
5 - University Of Florida, Florida Museum Of Natural History, Dickinson Hall, Gainesville, FL, 32611, United States
6 - University Of Florida, Florida Museum Of Natural History, Gainesville, FL, 32611.0, United States
7 - Zhejiang University, College Of Life Sciences, 866 Yuhangtang Rd., Xihu District, Hangzhou, 33, 310058, China
8 - University of Michigan, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 1105 N University Ave, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109

Keywords:
plastome
transcriptome
phylotranscriptomics
phylogenetics
whole genome duplication.

Presentation Type: Colloquium Presentations
Number: C3002
Abstract ID:687
Candidate for Awards:None