Phylogeny and biogeography of the fern genus <i>Hymenasplenium</i> (Aspleniaceae), with special reference to island speciation

Abstract Although considerable progress has recently been made in the phylogeny of Hymenasplenium , the genus remains poorly investigated; specifically, the diversification and historical biogeography of the genus have been little studied. Here, we infer an updated plastid DNA phylogeny and the first large‐scale nuclear DNA phylogeny to understand the biogeography of the genus. The plastid phylogeny includes 312 accessions from across the genus′ distribution range (ca. 121% increase of the latest sampling), with special attention paid to island accessions from 14 Indian Ocean and Pacific islands, whereas the nuclear phylogeny includes 161 accessions of the Afro–Eurasian species. We identify one new major clade and two new subclades. Reticulate evolution was revealed both among subclades and among species in the Afro–Eurasian. Our divergence‐time analyses show that most of the extant species diversity has arisen from diversification after the Oligocene despite a Cretaceous origin of the genus. Ancestral area reconstruction revealed that vicariance likely played a major role in building biogeographic patterns at deep evolutionary scales (the Afro–Eurasian clade and the American clade) in Hymenasplenium , while the intercontinental disjunctions within the Afro–Eurasian clade among Asia, Africa, and Oceania might have resulted from frequent long‐distance dispersal events from Asia to Oceania and Africa.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Systematics and Evolution
Published
2025-06-24
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.13194
Primary Topic
Fern and Epiphyte Biology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Phylogeny and biogeography of the fern genus Hymenasplenium (Aspleniaceae), with special reference to island speciation

Ke‐Wang Xu, Li‐Bing Zhang, Ngan Thi Lu, R. Knapp et al.
Journal of Systematics and Evolution
Fern and Epiphyte Biology
article

Phylogeny and biogeography of the fern genus Hymenasplenium (Aspleniaceae), with special reference to island speciation

Ke‐Wang Xu, Li‐Bing Zhang, Ngan Thi Lu, R. Knapp, Yue‐Hong Yan, Hui Shang, Tom A. Ranker, Zhao‐Rong He, Xin‐Mao Zhou, Kenneth R. Wood, Carl J. Rothfels, Liang Zhang, Chunxiang Li, Lin Zhou, David H. Lorence, Xin‐Fen Gao, M. Deng
article en

Abstract

Abstract Although considerable progress has recently been made in the phylogeny of Hymenasplenium , the genus remains poorly investigated; specifically, the diversification and historical biogeography of the genus have been little studied. Here, we infer an updated plastid DNA phylogeny and the first large‐scale nuclear DNA phylogeny to understand the biogeography of the genus. The plastid phylogeny includes 312 accessions from across the genus′ distribution range (ca. 121% increase of the latest sampling), with special attention paid to island accessions from 14 Indian Ocean and Pacific islands, whereas the nuclear phylogeny includes 161 accessions of the Afro–Eurasian species. We identify one new major clade and two new subclades. Reticulate evolution was revealed both among subclades and among species in the Afro–Eurasian. Our divergence‐time analyses show that most of the extant species diversity has arisen from diversification after the Oligocene despite a Cretaceous origin of the genus. Ancestral area reconstruction revealed that vicariance likely played a major role in building biogeographic patterns at deep evolutionary scales (the Afro–Eurasian clade and the American clade) in Hymenasplenium , while the intercontinental disjunctions within the Afro–Eurasian clade among Asia, Africa, and Oceania might have resulted from frequent long‐distance dispersal events from Asia to Oceania and Africa.

Journal of Systematics and EvolutionVol. 63(5)
Intermountain Healthcare (US), University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (US), Utah State University (US), National Tropical Botanical Garden (US), Kunming Institute of Botany (CN), Nanjing Forestry University (CN), Yunnan University (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Missouri Botanical Garden (US), Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology (CN), Shanghai Chenshan Plant Science Research Center (CN), Chengdu Institute of Biology (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Structure et Instabilité des Génomes (FR), State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Openalex Percentile: Top 88%
Fern and Epiphyte Biology
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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