Abstract Detail

Biogeography

Vera Paz, Sandra Itzel [1], Díaz Contreras Díaz, D. D [1], Montes-Azcue, Claudia [1], Jost, Matthias [2], Hernández-Gutiérrez, Rebeca [1], Magallon, Susana [1], Sánchez Gonzáles, Luis Antonio [3], Salazar, Gerardo [1], Wanke, Stefan [2], Granados Mendoza, Carolina [1].

Uncovering the biogeographic history of the Neotropical Tillandsia subgenus Tillandsia.

Tillandsia is the most diverse genus of the pineapple family (Bromeliaceae, Poales), with 768 Nearctic and Neotropical species distributed from Southern USA to Argentina and Chile. Species of Tillandsia are known by their notable morphological and ecological adaptations to epiphytic, and saxicolous habitats, such as specialized roots for anchoring, reduced stems with leaves in compact rosettes, modified trichomes for water and nutrient uptake, and the Crassulacean Acid Metabolism. Recent phylogenetic studies have greatly improved our knowledge about the infrageneric classification of Tillandsia. Among the seven currently recognized subgenera for Tillandsia, subgenus Tillandsia is the most diverse (270 spp.) and has its center of diversity in Mexico and Central America. Previous studies suggested that Bromeliaceae arose in the Guyana shield, later dispersing to the rest of the Neotropics. Tillandsia subgenus Tillandsia is thought to have dispersed from the Andes to Central and North America. However, a lack of phylogenetic resolution of previous studies using few Sanger-sequenced markers, have hindered the reconstruction of this dispersal route in detail. The present work uses complete plastomes assembled from Hyb-Seq data of a representative sampling of subgenus Tillandsia and selected outgroups from the Tillandsioideae. We generated a dated phylogeny which we used to perform ancestral-area reconstruction analyses. The additional phylogenetic resolution provided by the analysis of full plastomes allowed for a more robust reconstruction of the biogeographic history of the subgenus at a fine scale.

1 - Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Departamento de Botánica, Av. Universidad 3000, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, C.U., Delegación Coyoacán, C.P. 04510, Mexico City, Mexico.
2 - Technische Universität Dresden, Dept. Of Biology, Institut Of Botany, Zellescher Weg 20b, Dresden, 01062, Germany
3 - Museo de Zoología Alfonso L. Herrera, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Biología Evolutiva, Av. Investigación Científica,Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, C.U., Delegación Coyoacán, C.P. 04510, Mexico City, Mexico.

Keywords:
Tillandsia
plastome
Neotropics.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Number: BIOG I012
Abstract ID:339
Candidate for Awards:None