| 1. |
- Merckx, Vincent S. F. T., et al.
(författare)
-
Evolution of endemismon a young tropical mountain
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 524:7565, s. 347-
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Tropical mountains are hot spots of biodiversity and endemism(1-3), but the evolutionary origins of their unique biotas are poorly understood(4). In varying degrees, local and regional extinction, long-distance colonization, and local recruitment may all contribute to the exceptional character of these communities(5). Also, it is debated whether mountain endemics mostly originate from local lowland taxa, or from lineages that reach the mountain by long-range dispersal from cool localities elsewhere(6). Here we investigate the evolutionary routes to endemism by sampling an entire tropical mountain biota on the 4,095-metre-high Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, East Malaysia. We discover that most of its unique biodiversity is younger than the mountain itself (6 million years), and comprises a mix of immigrant pre-adapted lineages and descendants from local lowland ancestors, although substantial shifts from lower to higher vegetation zones in this latter group were rare. These insights could improve forecasts of the likelihood of extinction and 'evolutionary rescue'(7) in montane biodiversity hot spots under climate change scenarios.
|
|
| 2. |
- Perez-Escobar, O. A., et al.
(författare)
-
Molecular Clocks and Archeogenomics of a Late Period Egyptian Date Palm Leaf Reveal Introgression from Wild Relatives and Add Timestamps on the Domestication
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Molecular Biology and Evolution. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0737-4038 .- 1537-1719. ; 38:10, s. 4475-4492
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The date palm, Phoenix dactylifera, has been a cornerstone of Middle Eastern and North African agriculture for millennia. It was first domesticated in the Persian Gulf, and its evolution appears to have been influenced by gene flow from two wild relatives, P. theophrasti, currently restricted to Crete and Turkey, and P. sylvestris, widespread from Bangladesh to the West Himalayas. Genomes of ancient date palm seeds show that gene flow from P. theophrasti to P. dactylifera may have occurred by similar to 2,200years ago, but traces of P. sylvestris could not be detected. We here integrate archeogenomics of a similar to 2,100-year-old P. dactylifera leaf from Saqqara (Egypt), molecular-clock dating, and coalescence approaches with population genomic tests, to probe the hybridization between the date palm and its two closest relatives and provide minimum and maximum timestamps for its reticulated evolution. The Saqqara date palm shares a close genetic affinity with North African date palm populations, and we find clear genomic admixture from both P. theophrasti, and P. sylvestris, indicating that both had contributed to the date palm genome by 2,100years ago. Molecular-clocks placed the divergence of P. theophrasti from P. dactylifera/P. sylvestris and that of P. dactylifera from P. sylvestris in the Upper Miocene, but strongly supported, conflicting topologies point to older gene flow between P. theophrasti and P. dactylifera, and P. sylvestris and P. dactylifera. Our work highlights the ancient hybrid origin of the date palms, and prompts the investigation of the functional significance of genetic material introgressed from both close relatives, which in turn could prove useful for modern date palm breeding.
|
|
| 3. |
- De Boer, Hugo J., et al.
(författare)
-
Molecular phylogenetic analyses of Cucurbitaceae tribe Benincaseae urge for merging of Pilogyne with Zehneria
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Phytotaxa. - : Magnolia Press. - 1179-3155 .- 1179-3163. ; 236:2, s. 173-183
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The tropical cucurbitaceous genus Zehneria as traditionally circumscribed displays much morphological diversity. Recent taxonomic revisions have resulted in its redefinition through both recognition and subsequent lumping of several additional genera. This study utilized plastid and nuclear DNA sequence data to reconstruct a molecular phylogeny of Zehneria and its close relatives in order to test whether these revisions reflected the molecular evolution in this group. The results suggest that Neoachmandra is monophyletic, and that Zehneria in a restricted sense and Neoachmandra accessions form a single monophyletic clade, whereas Pilogyne in its present understanding is polyphyletic. In the light of these results Pilogyne should be merged back into Zehneria from which it was split off earlier.
|
|
| 4. |
- Kok, Esther T., et al.
(författare)
-
Resistance to Antibiotics and Antifungal Medicinal Products : Can Complementary and Alternative Medicine Help Solve the Problem in Common Infection Diseases? The Introduction of a Dutch Research Consortium
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. - : Hindawi Limited. - 1741-427X .- 1741-4288.
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The increase of antibiotic resistance worldwide, rising numbers of deaths and costs associated with this, and the fact that hardly any new antimicrobial drugs have been developed during the last decade have increased the interest in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapeutic interventions, if proven safe and effective. Observational studies on clinical CAM practices demonstrate positive effects of treatment of infections with CAM therapies (clinical effects, patient satisfaction) in combination with small percentages of antibiotics prescription. However, Cochrane reviews and other studies demonstrate that in most instances the quality of clinical trials on CAM treatment of infections is currently too low to provide sufficient evidence. Therefore a Dutch consortium on (in vitro and clinical) scientific research on CAM and antibiotic resistance has been formed. The aim and objective of the consortium is to establish an enduring partnership and to develop expertise to further develop and investigate safe and effective CAM treatments for infectious diseases of humans (and animals). A first ongoing project on the development of safe and effective biobased CAM antimycotics in women with (recurrent) vaginal candidiasis infection is introduced.
|
|
| 5. |
- Pérez-Escobar, O. A., et al.
(författare)
-
Hundreds of nuclear and plastid loci yield novel insights into orchid relationships
- 2021
-
Ingår i: American Journal of Botany. - : Wiley. - 0002-9122 .- 1537-2197. ; 108:7, s. 1166-1180
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PREMISE: The inference of evolutionary relationships in the species-rich family Orchidaceae has hitherto relied heavily on plastid DNA sequences and limited taxon sampling. Previous studies have provided a robust plastid phylogenetic framework, which was used to classify orchids and investigate the drivers of orchid diversification. However, the extent to which phylogenetic inference based on the plastid genome is congruent with the nuclear genome has been only poorly assessed. METHODS: We inferred higher-level phylogenetic relationships of orchids based on likelihood and ASTRAL analyses of 294 low-copy nuclear genes sequenced using the Angiosperms353 universal probe set for 75 species (representing 69 genera, 16 tribes, 24 subtribes) and a concatenated analysis of 78 plastid genes for 264 species (117 genera, 18 tribes, 28 subtribes). We compared phylogenetic informativeness and support for the nuclear and plastid phylogenetic hypotheses. RESULTS: Phylogenetic inference using nuclear data sets provides well-supported orchid relationships that are highly congruent between analyses. Comparisons of nuclear gene trees and a plastid supermatrix tree showed that the trees are mostly congruent, but revealed instances of strongly supported phylogenetic incongruence in both shallow and deep time. The phylogenetic informativeness of individual Angiosperms353 genes is in general better than that of most plastid genes. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides the first robust nuclear phylogenomic framework for Orchidaceae and an assessment of intragenomic nuclear discordance, plastid-nuclear tree incongruence, and phylogenetic informativeness across the family. Our results also demonstrate what has long been known but rarely thoroughly documented: nuclear and plastid phylogenetic trees can contain strongly supported discordances, and this incongruence must be reconciled prior to interpretation in evolutionary studies, such as taxonomy, biogeography, and character evolution. © 2021 The Authors. American Journal of Botany published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Botanical Society of America
|
|
