The evolutionary history of ferns inferred from 25 low-copy nuclear genes.
Abstract
UNLABELLED: • PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Understanding fern (monilophyte) phylogeny and
its evolutionary timescale is critical for broad investigations of the evolution of
land plants, and for providing the point of comparison necessary for studying the
evolution of the fern sister group, seed plants. Molecular phylogenetic investigations
have revolutionized our understanding of fern phylogeny, however, to date, these studies
have relied almost exclusively on plastid data.• METHODS: Here we take a curated phylogenomics
approach to infer the first broad fern phylogeny from multiple nuclear loci, by combining
broad taxon sampling (73 ferns and 12 outgroup species) with focused character sampling
(25 loci comprising 35877 bp), along with rigorous alignment, orthology inference
and model selection.• KEY RESULTS: Our phylogeny corroborates some earlier inferences
and provides novel insights; in particular, we find strong support for Equisetales
as sister to the rest of ferns, Marattiales as sister to leptosporangiate ferns, and
Dennstaedtiaceae as sister to the eupolypods. Our divergence-time analyses reveal
that divergences among the extant fern orders all occurred prior to ∼200 MYA. Finally,
our species-tree inferences are congruent with analyses of concatenated data, but
generally with lower support. Those cases where species-tree support values are higher
than expected involve relationships that have been supported by smaller plastid datasets,
suggesting that deep coalescence may be reducing support from the concatenated nuclear
data.• CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates the utility of a curated phylogenomics
approach to inferring fern phylogeny, and highlights the need to consider underlying
data characteristics, along with data quantity, in phylogenetic studies.
Type
Journal articleSubject
Equisetumcodon models
curated phylogenomics
divergence time dating
fern chronogram
incomplete lineage sorting
low-copy nuclear gene
model selection
monilophytes
transcriptome
Base Sequence
Biological Evolution
DNA, Plant
Ferns
Gene Dosage
Genetic Loci
Models, Genetic
Molecular Sequence Data
Phylogeny
Sequence Alignment
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Transcriptome
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/10798Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.3732/ajb.1500089Publication Info
Rothfels, CJ; Li, F; Sigel, EM; Huiet, L; Larsson, A; Burge, DO; ... Stewart Jr, CN (2015). The evolutionary history of ferns inferred from 25 low-copy nuclear genes. Am J Bot, 102(7). pp. 1089-1107. 10.3732/ajb.1500089. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/10798.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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