Phylogenomics, morphology and taxonomy in tribe Malmeeae (Malmeoideae, Annonaceae): implications on the evolution of androdioecy

Author(s)

Jenifer de Carvalho Lopes

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Biociências (IBIOC/SB)
• Defense date: 2016-09-13

Examining board members

Renato de Mello Silva; Diego Demarco; Adriana Quintella Lobão; Lucia Garcez Lohmann; André Olmos Simões

• Advisor: Renato de Mello Silva

Abstract

Flowers have a high diversity of sexual systems. The rarest among them is androdioecy, in which species present individuals with male flowers and others with bisexual flowers. The majority of androdioecious species, usually herbaceous plants with recurrent local extinction followed by re-colonization, has evolved from dioecious ancestors. Nevertheless, some woody and androdioecious plants have hermaphrodite ancestors. This is the case of Annonaceae, a pantropical family of woody and hermaphrodite plants, in which androdioecy is frequent. Androdioecious genera have arisen several times in different Annonaceae lineages, both in Annonoideae subfamily and in Malmeoideae subfamily. The majority of androdioecious genera belong to Malmeoideae, a mostly Asian group. In the Americas there are five androdioecious genera, all from tribe Malmeeae, where they compose a monophyletic group, with the exception of Pseudoxandra, which although being a member of Malmeeae, is not included in the androdioecious genera clade. Tribe Malmeeae is, thus, an excellent model to study androdioecy in Neotropical woody plants. The phylogenetic reconstruction of 33 taxa of this group was performed using DNA sequences of 66 molecular markers of the chloroplast genome, sequenced by next generation sequencing. Maximum likelihood, Bayesian inference and maximum parsimony were the methods used for the phylogenetic analyses. The reconstruction of ancestral states were performed to characters related to sexual system and floral morphology using a Bayesian approach. Morphological and anatomical analyses of male and bisexual flowers were done using LM and SEM. A morphological phylogeny and a taxonomic revision of Ephedranthus, an androdioecious genus of tribe Malmeeae, are also presented (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/04902-9 - Evolution of androdioecy in Neotropical woody plants: a phylogenetic approach
• Grantee: Jenifer de Carvalho Lopes Dantas
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate