title: A plastid DNA phylogeny of tribe Miliuseae: insights into relationships and character evolution in one of the most recalcitrant major clades of Annonaceae.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Tribe Miliuseae (∼25 genera and ∼510 species) includes a substantial part of the species and generic diversity in the pantropical flowering-plant family Annonaceae (∼108 genera and ∼2400 species). Previous molecular phylogenetic analyses have failed to resolve the backbone phylogeny of the tribe, impeding biogeographical and evolutionary studies. We use a dense generic taxon sample (∼89% of generic diversity in Miliuseae) and plastid DNA sequence data (∼7 kb) to clarify the phylogenetic relationships of and within the tribe.
  
  
  METHODS
  Parsimony and Bayesian phylogenetic reconstructions and ancestral character-state reconstructions of several reproductive characters were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Dendrokingstoniae, Monocarpieae, and Miliuseae are recovered in a strongly supported clade, and each tribe is strongly supported as monophyletic. Miliuseae are characterized by a synapomorphic cryptoaperturate/disulculate pollen apertural system. Stenanona is shown to be nested within the paraphyletic genus Desmopsis. The only Neotropical clade (Sapranthus, Tridimeris, Desmopsis, and Stenanona) in the predominantly Asian Miliuseae is shown to be closely related to an undescribed genus from continental Southeast Asia and the Indo-Malayan and Austral-Pacific genus Meiogyne. Ancestral character-state reconstructions of several reproductive characters that are diagnostically important at the generic level indicate a considerable degree of homoplasy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results improve our understanding of the relationships of and within Miliuseae, but parts of the backbone of the phylogeny remain poorly supported. Additional data from variable nuclear markers or reduced-genome-representation approaches seem to be required to further resolve relationships within this recalcitrant clade.
authors.affiliation: Naturalis Biodiversity Center (section NHN), Leiden University, Einsteinweg 2, 2333 CC Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tanawat
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chaowasku
authors.forename: Daniel C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Raymond W J M
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: van der Ham
authors.forename: Erik F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Smets
authors.forename: Johan B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Mols
authors.forename: Lars W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Chatrou
mesh_terms: D029061:Annonaceae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000235:genetics; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D018087:Plastids / Q000235:genetics*; D012098:Reproduction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant
keywords: Annonaceae; Miliuseae; character evolution; chloroplast markers; morphology; palynology; phylogenetic analyses