title: Quaternary climate change drives allo-peripatric speciation and refugial divergence in the Dysosma versipellis-pleiantha complex from different forest types in China.
abstract: Subtropical China harbours the world's most diverse temperate flora, but little is known about the roles of geographical and eco-climatic factors underlying the region's exceptionally high levels of species diversity and endemism. Here we address this key question by investigating the spatio-temporal and ecological processes of divergence within the Dysosma versipellis-pleiantha species complex, endemic to subtropical China. Our cpDNA phylogeny showed that this monophyletic group of understory herbs is derived from a Late Pliocene ancestor of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP)/Southwest China. Genetic and ENM data in conjunction with niche differentiation analyses support that the early divergence of D. versipellis and D. pleiantha proceeded through allo-peripatric speciation, possibly triggered by Early Pleistocene climate change, while subsequent climate-induced cycles of range contractions/expansions enhanced the eco-geographical isolation of both taxa. Furthermore, modelling of population-genetic data indicated that major lineage divergences within D. versipellis likely resulted from long-term allopatric population isolation in multiple localized refugia over the last glacial/interglacial periods, and which in turn fostered endemic species formation (D. difformis, D. majoensis) from within D. versipellis in Southwest China. These findings point to an overriding role of Quaternary climate change in triggering essentially allopatric (incipient) speciation in this group of forest-restricted plant species in subtropical China.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife of the Ministry of Education, and Laboratory of Systematic &Evolutionary Botany and Biodiversity, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Yi-Han
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolution, Salzburg University, A-5020 Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Hans Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Comes
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife of the Ministry of Education, and Laboratory of Systematic &Evolutionary Botany and Biodiversity, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Ya-Nan
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife of the Ministry of Education, and Laboratory of Systematic &Evolutionary Botany and Biodiversity, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife of the Ministry of Education, and Laboratory of Systematic &Evolutionary Botany and Biodiversity, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Yun-Rui
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife of the Ministry of Education, and Laboratory of Systematic &Evolutionary Botany and Biodiversity, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Ying-Xiong
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Qiu
mesh_terms: D028141:Berberidaceae / Q000235:genetics*; D002681:China; D057231:Climate Change; D018742:DNA, Chloroplast / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D065928:Forests; D049810:Genetic Speciation; D008954:Models, Biological; D058974:Phylogeography
chemical_list: D018742:DNA, Chloroplast