Abstract Detail

Systematics Section/ASPT

Li, Pan [1], Fu, Chengxin [1], Cameron, Kenneth [2].

Phylogeography of North American herbaceous Smilax (Smilacaceae): combined AFLP and cpDNA data support a northern refugium in the Driftless Area.

The genetic structure of North American herbaceous Smilax, a clade of closely related understory herbs that has a wide and disjunct distribution, was investigated to test the hypothesis of whether a northern refugium in the upper Midwest may have existed for these plants during the last glaciation. We analyzed 292 individuals from 33 populations sampled from California and throughout the eastern USA using AFLP and cpDNA sequence data (rpoC1 intron, trnG-psbK and trnC-ycf6). Individuals of S. jamesii from northern CA formed a clade sister to the eastern North American species, and they likely diverged from each other during the Pleistocene. Among the eastern species two lineages were found on opposite sides of the Appalachian Mountains (i.e., an Appalachian discontinuity). The populations near the "Driftless Area" contain most of the chlorotypes found in the Midwest, including a unique one endemic to this area, and the AFLP data indicate that one population from this area has the highest DW value. This study and others focused on mammals, amphibians, and woody plants, provides further evidence to the debate over whether the upper Midwest's Driftless Area may have hosted a biologically diverse northern glacial refugium. Herbaceous species of Smilax from eastern North American appear to have persisted in multiple refugia both east and west of the Appalachians, with several populations persisting in situ through the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). We suggest that they experienced localized expansion after the LGM, possibly followed by subsequent contact between the Midwest and the Eastern lineages.

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Published paper

1 - Zhejiang University, Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Hangzhou, 310029, China
2 - University of Wisconsin, Department of Botany, 154 Birge Hall, 450 Lincoln Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

Keywords:
Monocot
AFLP
Liliales
biogeography.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 48
Location: Elmwood/Riverside Hilton
Date: Wednesday, July 31st, 2013
Time: 3:00 PM
Number: 48007
Abstract ID:395
Candidate for Awards:None