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Plants
Special Issues
Genetic Diversity and Phylogeography of Lycophytes and Ferns
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Genetic Diversity and Phylogeography of Lycophytes and Ferns

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Ecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2021) | Viewed by 5074

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Víctor N Suárez-Santiago

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Botany, Faculty of Sciences, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
Interests: conservation genetics; evolution and development; hybridization; molecular systematics; phylogeography; plant taxonomy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Samira Ben-Menni Schuler

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Botany, Faculty of Sciences, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
Interests: conservation genetics; evolution and development; molecular systematics; phylogeography
Dr. Frederick J. Rumsey

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Life Sciences, Algae, Fungi & Plants Division, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
Interests: plant taxonomy; conservation biology; speciation; island biogeography; phylogeography

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The development and improvement of population genetics and phylogeographic analyses, along with advances in molecular biology techniques over the last few decades, have provided the tools to establish the causes and processes that at the level of species have caused different patterns of diversity, distribution, and diversification of populations and gene lineages. However, for ferns and lycophytes, the phylogeography and genetic diversity pattern of most of their species have not been studied, which signifies an important lack of knowledge regarding plant evolutionary history.

Fern and lycophyte species belong to ancestral lineages among vascular plants. In plant phylogeography, most studies examine the effects of Pleistocene glaciations on plant distributions, while few studies address the history of ancient taxa in deeper time. Thus, ferns and lycophytes are suitable species for completing or contrasting the hypotheses proposed by historical biogeographic studies on the history of ancestral taxa and the factors responsible for their demise and current distribution, since the origin and initial stages of diversification of these species can be associated with powerful geological and climatic processes before the Pleistocene.

On the other hand, the biological peculiarities of ferns and lycophytes (i.e., independent life cycle phases, high spore dispersive capacity, post-dispersal fertilization, variability of breeding systems, clonality, scarcity and disjunct distribution of suitable habitats, especially in temperate areas) make them interesting species to explore the influence of these peculiarities on genetic diversity levels and on the population processes responsible for genetic structure.

This Special Issue provides a great opportunity to launch phylogeographic and genetic diversity studies in ferns. There are many issues to which these studies can contribute, such as the taxonomic, evolutionary, conservation, and biogeographic; this Special Ossue welcomes articles, opinions and reviews addressing any of these issues.

Dr. Víctor N Suárez-Santiago
Dr. Samira Ben-Menni Schuler
Dr. Frederick J. Rumsey
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ferns
  • genetic diversity
  • lycophytes
  • molecular markers
  • phylogeography
  • population genetics

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 2659 KiB  
Article
Phylogeographical Analyses of a Relict Fern of Palaeotropical Flora (Vandenboschia speciosa): Distribution and Diversity Model in Relation to the Geological and Climate Events of the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene
by Samira Ben-Menni Schuler, Hammadi Hamza, Gabriel Blanca, Ana Teresa Romero-García and Víctor N. Suárez-Santiago
Plants 2022, 11(7), 839; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11070839 - 22 Mar 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2151
Abstract
Fern phylogeographic studies have mostly focused on the influence of the Pleistocene climate on fern distributions and the prevalence of long-distance dispersal. The effect of pre-Pleistocene events on the distributions of fern species is largely unexplored. Here, we elucidate a hypothetical scenario for [...] Read more.
Fern phylogeographic studies have mostly focused on the influence of the Pleistocene climate on fern distributions and the prevalence of long-distance dispersal. The effect of pre-Pleistocene events on the distributions of fern species is largely unexplored. Here, we elucidate a hypothetical scenario for the evolutionary history of Vandenboschia speciosa, hypothesised to be of Tertiary palaeotropical flora with a peculiar perennial gametophyte. We sequenced 40 populations across the species range in one plastid region and two variants of the nuclear gapCp gene and conducted time-calibrated phylogenetic, phylogeographical, and species distribution modelling analyses. Vandenboschia speciosa is an allopolyploid and had a Tertiary origin. Late Miocene aridification possibly caused the long persistence in independent refugia on the Eurosiberian Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, with the independent evolution of gene pools resulting in two evolutionary units. The Cantabrian Cornice, a major refugium, could also be a secondary contact zone during Quaternary glacial cycles. Central European populations resulted from multiple post-glacial, long-distance dispersals. Vandenboschia speciosa reached Macaronesia during the Pliocene–Pleistocene, with a phylogeographical link between the Canary Islands, Madeira, and southern Iberia, and between the Azores and northwestern Europe. Our results support the idea that the geological and climate events of the Late Miocene/Early Pliocene shifted Tertiary fern distribution patterns in Europe. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic Diversity and Phylogeography of Lycophytes and Ferns)
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22 pages, 1830 KiB  
Article
Macaronesia Acts as a Museum of Genetic Diversity of Relict Ferns: The Case of Diplazium caudatum (Athyriaceae)
by Samira Ben-Menni Schuler, Jesús Picazo-Aragonés, Fred J. Rumsey, Ana Teresa Romero-García and Víctor N. Suárez-Santiago
Plants 2021, 10(11), 2425; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10112425 - 10 Nov 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2279
Abstract
Macaronesia has been considered a refuge region of the formerly widespread subtropical lauroid flora that lived in Southern Europe during the Tertiary. The study of relict angiosperms has shown that Macaronesian relict taxa preserve genetic variation and revealed general patterns of colonization and [...] Read more.
Macaronesia has been considered a refuge region of the formerly widespread subtropical lauroid flora that lived in Southern Europe during the Tertiary. The study of relict angiosperms has shown that Macaronesian relict taxa preserve genetic variation and revealed general patterns of colonization and dispersal. However, information on the conservation of genetic diversity and range dynamics rapidly diminishes when referring to pteridophytes, despite their dominance of the herbaceous stratum in the European tropical palaeoflora. Here we aim to elucidate the pattern of genetic diversity and phylogeography of Diplazium caudatum, a hypothesized species of the Tertiary Palaeotropical flora and currently with its populations restricted across Macaronesia and disjunctly in the Sierras de Algeciras (Andalusia, southern Iberian Peninsula). We analysed 12 populations across the species range using eight microsatellite loci, sequences of a region of plastid DNA, and carry out species-distribution modelling analyses. Our dating results confirm the Tertiary origin of this species. The Macaronesian archipelagos served as a refuge during at least the Quaternary glacial cycles, where populations of D. caudatum preserved higher levels of genetic variation than mainland populations. Our data suggest the disappearance of the species in the continent and the subsequent recolonization from Macaronesia. The results of the AMOVA analysis and the indices of clonal diversity and linkage disequilibrium suggest that D. caudatum is a species in which inter-gametophytic outcrossing predominates, and that in the Andalusian populations there was a shift in mating system toward increased inbreeding and/or clonality. The model that best explains the genetic diversity distribution pattern observed in Macaronesia is, the initial and recurrent colonization between islands and archipelagos and the relatively recent diversification of restricted area lineages, probably due to the decrease of favorable habitats and competition with lineages previously established. This study extends to ferns the concept of Macaronesia archipelagos as refugia for genetic variation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic Diversity and Phylogeography of Lycophytes and Ferns)
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