One species or at least eight? Delimitation and distribution of Frullania tamarisci (L.) Dumort. s. l. (Jungermanniopsida, Porellales) inferred from nuclear and chloroplast DNA markers.
Frullania tamarisci is usually regarded as a polymorphic, holarctic-Asian liverwort species with four allopatric subspecies [subsp. asagrayana, moniliata, nisquallensis and tamarisci]. This hypothesis is examined using a dataset including sequences of the nuclear internal transcribed spacer region and the plastid trnL-trnF and atpB-rbcL regions of 88 accessions of F. tamarisci and putatively related taxa. Maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood analyses indicate the presence of at least eight main lineages within F. tamarisci s. l. The long branches leading to the tip nodes of the different F. tamarisci s. l. clades and their partly sympatric distribution reinforce species rank. Within F. tamarisci s. l. we recognize the Asian F. moniliata, the western North American F. californica and F. nisquallensis, the eastern North American F. asagrayana, the eastern North American-European F. tamarisci s. str., the Macaronesian F. sergiae, and two newly identified European lineages assigned to as F. calcarifera and F. tamarisci var. azorica. The considerable sequence differences are not reflected in conspicuous morphological disparities, rendering F. tamarisci s. l. the most explicit example of a complex of semi-cryptic and cryptic liverwort species. The temperate Frullania clades of this study likely went through recent extinction and expansion processes as indicated by the bottleneck pattern of genetic diversity. Species from tropical regions or regions with an Atlantic climate usually contain several geographical lineages. Our findings support frequent short-distance migration, rare successful long-distance dispersal events, extinction and recolonization as an explanation for the range formation in these Frullania species.
Heinrichs
Jochen
J
Georg August University, Albrecht-von-Haller-Institute of Plant Sciences, Department of Systematic Botany, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073 Göttingen, Germany. jheinri@uni-goettingen.de
Hentschel
Jörn
J
Bombosch
Andrea
A
Fiebig
Anja
A
Reise
Judith
J
Edelmann
Michel
M
Kreier
Hans-Peter
HP
Schäfer-Verwimp
Alfons
A
Caspari
Steffen
S
Schmidt
Alexander R
AR
Zhu
Rui-Liang
RL
von Konrat
Matthew
M
Shaw
Blanka
B
Shaw
A Jonathan
AJ
D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000235:genetics; D018742:DNA, Chloroplast / Q000235:genetics; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005819:Genetic Markers; D049810:Genetic Speciation; D005843:Geography; D035926:Hepatophyta / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D018742:DNA, Chloroplast; D018744:DNA, Plant; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer; D005819:Genetic Markers