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ORIGIN AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF AESCULUS L. (HIPPOCASTANACEAE): A MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETIC PERSPECTIVE
Author(s) -
Xiang QiuYun,
Crawford Daniel J.,
Wolfe Andrea D.,
Tang YanCheng,
DePamphilis Claude W.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1998.tb01828.x
Subject(s) - biology , biogeography , phylogenetic tree , perspective (graphical) , evolutionary biology , phylogenetics , zoology , ecology , genetics , gene , artificial intelligence , computer science
Sequences of chloroplast gene matK and internal transcribed spacers of nuclear ribosomal RNA genes were used for phylogenetic analyses of Aesculus , a genus currently distributed in eastern Asia, eastern and western North America, and southeastern Europe. Phylogenetic relationships inferred from these molecular data are highly correlated with the geographic distributions of species. The identified lineages closely correspond to the five sections previously recognized on the basis of morphology. Ancestral character‐state reconstruction, a molecular clock, and fossil evidence were used to infer the origin and biogeographic history of the genus within a phylogenetic framework. Based on the molecular phylogenetic reconstruction of the genus, sequence divergence, and paleontological evidence, we infer that the genus originated during the transition from the Cretaceous to the Tertiary (~65 M.Y.B.P.) at a high latitude in eastern Asia and spread into North America and Europe as an element of the “boreotropical flora”; the current disjunct distribution of the genus resulted from geological and climatic changes during the Tertiary.