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Wróbel A, Klichowska E, Nobis M. Hybrids as mirrors of the past: genomic footprints reveal spatio-temporal dynamics and extinction risk of alpine extremophytes in the mountains of Central Asia. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2024; 15:1369732. [PMID: 38693932 PMCID: PMC11061500 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1369732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2024] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 05/03/2024]
Abstract
Hybridization is one of the key processes shaping lineage diversification, particularly in regions that experienced strong climate oscillations. The alpine biome with its rich history of glacial-interglacial cycles and complex patterns of species distribution shifts offers an excellent system to investigate the impact of gene flow on population dynamics and speciation, important issues for evolutionary biology and biodiversity conservation. In this study, we combined genomic data (DArTseq), chloroplast markers, and morphology to examine phylogenetic relationships and the permeability of species boundaries and their evolutionary outcomes among the alpine extremophilic species of Puccinellia (Poaceae) in the Pamir Mountains, a part of the Mountains of Central Asia biodiversity hotspot. We determined the occurrence of interspecific hybrids between P. himalaica and P. pamirica, which demonstrated almost symmetric ancestry from their parental species and did not show signals of introgression. According to our integrative revision, the natural hybrids between P. himalaica and P. pamirica should be classified as Puccinellia ×vachanica (pro species). Using approximate Bayesian computation for population history inference, we uncovered that P. himalaica hybridized with P. pamirica independently in multiple localities over the Holocene. Hybrids inherited the fine-scale genetic structure from their parental species, which developed these patterns earlier, during the Late Pleistocene. Hybridization had different consequences for the involved parental lineages, likely playing an important role in a continuing decline of P. himalaica in the Pamir Mountains over the Holocene. Our results show that P. himalaica should be considered a critically endangered species in the Pamir Mountains and could also be retreating across its entire range of distribution in High Mountain Asia. Using a comparative phylogeographic framework, we revealed the risk of extinction of a cold-adapted alpine species in a global biodiversity hotspot. This study highlights that genomics could unravel diversity trends under climate change and provides valuable evidence for conservation management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Wróbel
- Institute of Botany, Faculty of Biology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
- Doctoral School of Exact and Natural Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
| | - Ewelina Klichowska
- Institute of Botany, Faculty of Biology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
| | - Marcin Nobis
- Institute of Botany, Faculty of Biology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
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Touchette L, Godbout J, Lamothe M, Porth I, Isabel N. A cryptic syngameon within Betula shrubs revealed: Implications for conservation in changing subarctic environments. Evol Appl 2024; 17:e13689. [PMID: 38633131 PMCID: PMC11022622 DOI: 10.1111/eva.13689] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2023] [Revised: 02/06/2024] [Accepted: 03/20/2024] [Indexed: 04/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Arctic and subarctic ecosystems are rapidly transforming due to global warming, emphasizing the need to understand the genetic diversity and adaptive strategies of northern plant species for effective conservation. This study focuses on Betula glandulosa, a native North American tundra shrub known as dwarf birch, which demonstrates an apparent capacity to adapt to changing climate conditions. To address the taxonomic challenges associated with shrub birches and logistical complexities of sampling in the northernmost areas where species' ranges overlap, we adopted a multicriteria approach. Incorporating molecular data, ploidy level assessment and leaf morphology, we aimed to distinguish B. glandulosa individuals from other shrub birch species sampled. Our results revealed three distinct species and their hybrids within the 537 collected samples, suggesting the existence of a shrub birch syngameon, a reproductive network of interconnected species. Additionally, we identified two discrete genetic clusters within the core species, B. glandulosa, that likely correspond to two different glacial lineages. A comparison between the nuclear and chloroplast SNP data emphasizes a long history of gene exchange between different birch species and genetic clusters. Furthermore, our results highlight the significance of incorporating interfertile congeneric species in conservation strategies and underscores the need for a holistic approach to conservation in the context of climate change, considering the complex dynamics of species interactions. While further research will be needed to describe this shrub birches syngameon and its constituents, this study is a first step in recognizing its existence and disseminating awareness among ecologists and conservation practitioners. This biological phenomenon, which offers evolutionary flexibility and resilience beyond what its constituent species can achieve individually, may have significant ecological implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lyne Touchette
- Department of Wood and Forest SciencesUniversité LavalQuebecQuebecCanada
- Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest ServiceLaurentian Forestry CentreQuebecQuebecCanada
- Centre for Forest ResearchUniversité LavalQuebecQuebecCanada
| | - Julie Godbout
- Ministère des Ressources naturelles et des Forêts, Direction de la recherche forestièreQuébecQuébecCanada
| | - Manuel Lamothe
- Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest ServiceLaurentian Forestry CentreQuebecQuebecCanada
| | - Ilga Porth
- Department of Wood and Forest SciencesUniversité LavalQuebecQuebecCanada
- Centre for Forest ResearchUniversité LavalQuebecQuebecCanada
| | - Nathalie Isabel
- Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest ServiceLaurentian Forestry CentreQuebecQuebecCanada
- Centre for Forest ResearchUniversité LavalQuebecQuebecCanada
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Wu Z, Solís-Lemus C. Ultrafast learning of four-node hybridization cycles in phylogenetic networks using algebraic invariants. BIOINFORMATICS ADVANCES 2024; 4:vbae014. [PMID: 38384862 PMCID: PMC10879748 DOI: 10.1093/bioadv/vbae014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2023] [Revised: 12/23/2023] [Accepted: 02/06/2024] [Indexed: 02/23/2024]
Abstract
Motivation The abundance of gene flow in the Tree of Life challenges the notion that evolution can be represented with a fully bifurcating process which cannot capture important biological realities like hybridization, introgression, or horizontal gene transfer. Coalescent-based network methods are increasingly popular, yet not scalable for big data, because they need to perform a heuristic search in the space of networks as well as numerical optimization that can be NP-hard. Here, we introduce a novel method to reconstruct phylogenetic networks based on algebraic invariants. While there is a long tradition of using algebraic invariants in phylogenetics, our work is the first to define phylogenetic invariants on concordance factors (frequencies of four-taxon splits in the input gene trees) to identify level-1 phylogenetic networks under the multispecies coalescent model. Results Our novel hybrid detection methodology is optimization-free as it only requires the evaluation of polynomial equations, and as such, it bypasses the traversal of network space, yielding a computational speed at least 10 times faster than the fastest-to-date network methods. We illustrate our method's performance on simulated and real data from the genus Canis. Availability and implementation We present an open-source publicly available Julia package PhyloDiamond.jl available at https://github.com/solislemuslab/PhyloDiamond.jl with broad applicability within the evolutionary community.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhaoxing Wu
- Department of Statistics, Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, United States
| | - Claudia Solís-Lemus
- Department of Plant Pathology, Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, United States
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Aqeel M, Khalid N, Noman A, Ran J, Manan A, Hou Q, Dong L, Sun Y, Deng Y, Lee SS, Hu W, Deng J. Interplay between edaphic and climatic factors unravels plant and microbial diversity along an altitudinal gradient. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2024; 242:117711. [PMID: 37995997 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117711] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2023] [Revised: 11/03/2023] [Accepted: 11/15/2023] [Indexed: 11/25/2023]
Abstract
Altitude influences biodiversity and physiochemical soil attributes in terrestrial ecosystems. It is of immense importance to know the patterns of how interactions among climatic and edaphic factors influence plant and microbial diversity in various ecosystems, particularly along the gradients. We hypothesize that altitudinal variation determines the distribution of plant and microbial species as well as their interactions. To test the hypothesis, different sites with variable altitudes were selected. Analyses of edaphic factors revealed significant (p < 0.001) effects of the altitude. Soil ammonium and nitrate were strongly affected by it contrary to potassium (K), soil organic matter and carbon. The response patterns of individual taxonomic groups differed across the altitudinal gradient. Plant species and soil fungal diversity increased with increasing altitude, while soil archaeal and bacterial diversity decreased with increasing altitude. Plant species richness showed significant positive and negative interactions with edaphic and climatic factors. Fungal species richness was also significantly influenced by the soil ammonium, nitrate, available phosphorus, available potassium, electrical conductivity, and the pH of the soil, but showed non-significant interactions with other edaphic factors. Similarly, soil variables had limited impact on soil bacterial and archaeal species richness along the altitude gradient. Proteobacteria, Ascomycota, and Thaumarchaeota dominate soil bacterial, fungal, and archaeal communities, with relative abundance of 27.4%, 70.56%, and 81.55%, respectively. Additionally, Cynodon dactylon is most abundant plant species, comprising 22.33% of the recorded plant taxa in various study sites. RDA revealed that these communities influenced by certain edaphic and climatic factors, e.g., Actinobacteria strongly respond to MAT, EC, and C/N ratio, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota show strong associations with EC and MAP, respectively. Thaumarcheota are linked to pH, and OM, while Cyperus rotundus are sensitive to AI and EC. In conclusion, the observed variations in microbial as well as plant species richness and changes in soil properties at different elevations provide valuable insights into the factors determining ecosystem stability and multifunctionality in different regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muhammad Aqeel
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China
| | - Noreen Khalid
- Department of Botany, Government College Women University Sialkot, Pakistan
| | - Ali Noman
- Department of Botany, Government College University Faisalabad, Pakistan
| | - Jinzhi Ran
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China
| | - Abdul Manan
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China
| | - Qingqing Hou
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China
| | - Longwei Dong
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China
| | - Ying Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China
| | - Yan Deng
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China
| | - Sang Soo Lee
- Department of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Yonsei University, Wonju, 26493, Republic of Korea
| | - Weigang Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China.
| | - Jianming Deng
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China.
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Corlett RT. Achieving zero extinction for land plants. TRENDS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2023; 28:913-923. [PMID: 37142532 DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2023.03.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2022] [Revised: 03/16/2023] [Accepted: 03/18/2023] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Despite the importance of plants for humans and the threats to their future, plant conservation receives far less support compared with vertebrate conservation. Plants are much cheaper and easier to conserve than are animals, but, although there are no technical reasons why any plant species should become extinct, inadequate funding and the shortage of skilled people has created barriers to their conservation. These barriers include the incomplete inventory, the low proportion of species with conservation status assessments, partial online data accessibility, varied data quality, and insufficient investment in both in and ex situ conservation. Machine learning, citizen science (CS), and new technologies could mitigate these problems, but we need to set national and global targets of zero plant extinction to attract greater support.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard T Corlett
- Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan 666303, China; Center of Conservation Biology, Core Botanical Gardens, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan 666303, China.
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Lemoine RT, Svenning J. Nativeness is not binary ‐ a graduated terminology for native and non‐native species in the Anthropocene. Restor Ecol 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/rec.13636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Rhys Taylor Lemoine
- Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE) & Section for Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Biology Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114 DK‐8000 Aarhus C Denmark
| | - Jens‐Christian Svenning
- Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE) & Section for Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Biology Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114 DK‐8000 Aarhus C Denmark
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Walters LJ, McClenachan G. Commentary on Osland et al.: Tropicalization of temperate ecosystems in North America: The northward range expansion of tropical organisms in response to warming winter temperatures. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2021; 27:3006-3008. [PMID: 33837623 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15631] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2021] [Revised: 03/19/2021] [Accepted: 04/01/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Linda J Walters
- Department of Biology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA
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Draper D, Laguna E, Marques I. Demystifying Negative Connotations of Hybridization for Less Biased Conservation Policies. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.637100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Interspecific hybridization is one of the most controversial—and usually neglected—issues in conservation due to its multiple evolutionary consequences that might include the origin and transfer of adaptations, the blur of distinctive lineages or the formation of maladaptive hybrids. However, despite different outcomes, most conservation laws do not offer any possibility of hybrids being protected since they are perceived as a threat to the survival of pure species. We assessed how much hybridization has contributed to species extinction considering all IUCN Red Data assessments. However, we found that it has been scarcely reported as a threat contributing to extinction: only 11 extinct species out of 120,369 assessments mentioned hybridization. Although the causes that contribute to species extinctions should be controlled, the reasons for not conserving hybrids seem subjective rather than empirically supported. In a genomic era where hybridization is being more frequently detected, the debate involving the conservation of hybrids should be re-opened. Should we conserve hybrids despite the possibility of gene flow with parental species? Should we protect only natural hybrids? The resolution of this debate goes to the heart of what we mean to conserve and the time scale of conservation. But hybridization is part of the evolutionary process and might even increase in the future due to human-induced changes. As such, it becomes clear that we need to move beyond the causes and instead tackle the consequences of hybridization to create environmental policies for the management of hybrids, considering both positive and negative consequences.
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Velazco SJE, Svenning J, Ribeiro BR, Laureto LMO. On opportunities and threats to conserve the phylogenetic diversity of Neotropical palms. DIVERS DISTRIB 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/ddi.13215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Santiago José Elías Velazco
- Instituto de Biología Subtropical Universidad Nacional de Misiones‐CONICET Puerto Iguazú Misiones N3370BFAArgentina
| | - Jean‐Christian Svenning
- Section of Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience Aarhus University AarhusDK‐8000Denmark
- Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE) Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University AarhusDK‐8000Denmark
| | - Bruno R. Ribeiro
- Programa de Pós‐Graduaçao Ecología e Evolução Instituto de Ciências Biológicas V, Universidade Federal de Goiás Goiânia Goiás 74.690‐900Brazil
| | - Livia Maira Orlandi Laureto
- Theoretical, Metacommunity and Landscape Ecology Laboratory Instituto de Ciências Biológicas V, Universidade Federal de Goiás Goiânia Goiás 74.690‐900Brazil
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