J Syst Evol ›› 2018, Vol. 56 ›› Issue (6): 637-651.DOI: 10.1111/jse.12467

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Phylogeny and spatio‐temporal diversification of Prunus subgenus Laurocerasus section Mesopygeum (Rosaceae) in the Malesian region

Liang Zhao1,2, Daniel Potter3, Yuan Xu4, Pei-Liang Liu5, Gabriel Johnson6, Zhao-Yang Chang1,2, Jun Wen6*   

  1. 1College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China
    2Herbarium of Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China
    3Department of Plant Sciences, MS2, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
    4Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, China
    5College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, China
    6Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, MRC 166, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
  • Received:2018-04-14 Accepted:2018-10-31 Published:2018-12-13

Abstract: The goals of this study were to reconstruct the phylogeny of Prunus subgenus Laurocerasus section Mesopygeum and to provide a preliminary assessment of its spatio‐temporal diversification in the Malesian region. We inferred the phylogeny using nuclear ITS and ETS and plastid psbA‐trnH, rps16, rpl16, and trnC‐petN sequences. Our analyses support the monophyly of sect. Mesopygeum. Within sect. Mesopygeum, we identified four main subclades: (i) Prunus lancilimba from continental Asia; (ii) Prunus ruthii from Malay Peninsula; (iii) a subclade comprising species from areas centered on the Sunda shelf and also a few species from continental Asia and Wallacea; and (iv) a subclade composed of species from areas of the Sahul shelf, with a small number of taxa also from areas of the Sunda shelf, continental Asia, and the Philippines. We estimated that sect. Mesopygeum originated in continental Asia at c. 44.71 Mya (95% HPD: 31.66–46.90). Nine dispersals between major geographic areas were inferred. From continental Asia, three and two dispersals were inferred to the Sunda shelf and the Sahul shelf in the mid‐Oligocene, respectively. Two dispersals were inferred from the Sahul shelf region to the Sunda shelf in late Oligecene and early Miocene, respectively. There were also two dispersals inferred from the Sunda shelf region, one to the Philippines and one to Wallacea, in the middle and late Miocene, respectively. The diversification in sect. Mesopygeum was likely driven by active geologic events and orogenies in the Neogene in the Malesian region.

Key words: biogeography, Malesian region, Prunus, Prunus section Mesopygeum, Pygeum, radiation, Rosaceae, Sahul shelf, Sunda shelf, Wallace line.