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      Melothria domingensis (Cucurbitaceae), an endangered Caribbean endemic, is a Cayaponia

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      1 , 2
      PhytoKeys
      Pensoft Publishers
      Cogniaux, Flora of Hispaniola, Melothria domingensis, pollinator shifts

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          Abstract

          Abstract

          The Neotropical genus Melothria ( Benincaseae, Cucurbitaceae) is a small group of yellow- or white-flowered climbers with small to medium-sized fruits. In 1899, Alfred Cogniaux described a species from montane rainforest in Haiti as Melothria domingensis , presumably based on the overall similarity in habit, leaf shape, and fruit morphology of his incomplete herbarium material to other Central American Melothria species. Melothria domingensis is still rare in European and American herbaria and the species has never been studied in detail. We here present molecular and morphological analyses, which show that the species is misplaced in Melothria and instead belongs in the distantly related tribe Cucurbiteae in the genus Cayaponia . We illustrate the species, provide the formal transfer and an extended description, and discuss the phylogenetic, biogeographic and ecological implications, including the finding that most likely bee- and not bat-pollination is ancestral in Cayaponia .

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          Most cited references4

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          Chloroplast DNA phylogeny, reticulate evolution, and biogeography of Paeonia (Paeoniaceae).

          The coding region of the mat K gene and two intergenic spacers, psb A-trn H and trn L(UAA)-trn F(GAA), of cpDNA were sequenced to study phylogenetic relationships of 32 Paeonia species. In the psb A-trn H intergenic spacer, short sequences bordered by long inverted repeats have undergone inversions that are often homoplasious mutations. Insertions/deletions found in the two intergenic spacers, mostly resulting from slipped-strand mispairing, provided relatively reliable phylogenetic information. The mat K coding region, evolving more rapidly than the trnL-trn F spacer and more slowly than the psb A-trn H spacer, produced the best resolved phylogenetic tree. The mat K phylogeny was compared with the phylogeny obtained from sequences of internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA. A refined hypothesis of species phylogeny of section Paeonia was proposed by considering the discordance between the nuclear and cpDNA phylogenies to be results of hybrid speciation followed by inheritance of cpDNA of one parent and fixation of ITS sequences of another parent. The Eurasian and western North American disjunct distribution of the genus may have resulted from interrruption of the continuous distribution of ancestral populations of extant peony species across the Bering land bridge during the Miocene. Pleistocene glaciation may have played an important role in triggering extensive reticulate evolution within section Paeonia and shifting distributional ranges of both parental and hybrid species.
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            Gourds afloat: a dated phylogeny reveals an Asian origin of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae) and numerous oversea dispersal events.

            Knowing the geographical origin of economically important plants is important for genetic improvement and conservation, but has been slowed by uneven geographical sampling where relatives occur in remote areas of difficult access. Less biased species sampling can be achieved when herbarium collections are included as DNA sources. Here, we address the history of Cucurbitaceae, one of the most economically important families of plants, using a multigene phylogeny for 114 of the 115 genera and 25 per cent of the 960 species. Worldwide sampling was achieved by using specimens from 30 herbaria. Results reveal an Asian origin of Cucurbitaceae in the Late Cretaceous, followed by the repeated spread of lineages into the African, American and Australian continents via transoceanic long-distance dispersal (LDD). North American cucurbits stem from at least seven range expansions of Central and South American lineages; Madagascar was colonized 13 times, always from Africa; Australia was reached 12 times, apparently always from Southeast Asia. Overall, Cucurbitaceae underwent at least 43 successful LDD events over the past 60Myr, which would translate into an average of seven LDDs every 10Myr. These and similar findings from other angiosperms stress the need for an increased tapping of museum collections to achieve extensive geographical sampling in plant phylogenetics.
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              A multi-locus chloroplast phylogeny for the Cucurbitaceae and its implications for character evolution and classification.

              Cucurbitaceae contain c. 800 species in 130 genera and are among the economically most important families of plants. We inferred their phylogeny based on chloroplast DNA sequences from two genes, one intron, and two spacers (rbcL, matK, trnL, trnL-trnF, rpl20-rps12) obtained for 171 species in 123 genera. Molecular data weakly support the traditional subfamilies Cucurbitoideae (111 genera) and Nhandiroboideae (19 genera, 60 species), and recover most of the eleven tribes, but almost none of the subtribes. Indofevillea khasiana is sister to all other Cucurbitoideae, and the genera of Joliffieae plus a few Trichosantheae form a grade near the base of Cucurbitoideae. A newly discovered large clade consists of the ancestrally Asian genera Nothoalsomitra, Luffa, Gymnopetalum, Hodgsonia, Trichosanthes, and the New World tribe Sicyeae. Genera that are poly- or paraphyletic include Ampelosicyos, Cucumis, Ibervillea, Neoachmandra, Psiguria, Trichosanthes, and Xerosicyos. Flower characters, especially number of free styles, fusion of filaments and/or anthers, tendril type, and pollen size, exine, and aperture number correlate well with the chloroplast phylogeny, while petal and fruit characters as well as karyotype exhibit much evolutionary flexibility.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                PhytoKeys
                PhytoKeys
                PhytoKeys
                PhytoKeys
                Pensoft Publishers
                1314-2011
                1314-2003
                2012
                6 December 2012
                : 18
                : 45-60
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Plant Biodiversity Research, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany
                [2 ]Institute of Systematic Botany, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York 10458, USA
                Author notes
                Corresponding author: Hanno Schaefer ( hanno.schaefer@ 123456tum.de )

                Academic editor: H. De Boer

                Article
                10.3897/phytokeys.18.3914
                3666606
                23730193
                578aa1ff-78c7-42e1-96bd-95ca2ce50cbc
                Hanno Schaefer, Michael H. Nee

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC-BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 29 August 2012
                : 21 November 2012
                Categories
                Article

                Plant science & Botany
                cogniaux,flora of hispaniola,melothria domingensis,pollinator shifts
                Plant science & Botany
                cogniaux, flora of hispaniola, melothria domingensis, pollinator shifts

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