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P leistocene climate change and the origin of two desert plant species, P ugionium cornutum and P ugionium dolabratum ( B rassicaceae), in northwest C hina
Author(s) -
Wang Qian,
Abbott Richard J.,
Yu QiuShi,
Lin Kao,
Liu JianQuan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/nph.12241
Subject(s) - intraspecific competition , biology , interspecific competition , divergence (linguistics) , nuclear gene , myr , chloroplast dna , gene , habitat , evolutionary biology , genetics , phylogenetics , botany , ecology , genome , linguistics , philosophy
SummaryP leistocene climate change has had an important effect in shaping intraspecific genetic variation in many species; however, its role in driving speciation is less clear. We examined the possibility of a P leistocene origin of the only two representatives of the genus P ugionium ( B rassicaceae), P ugionium cornutum and P ugionium dolabratum , which occupy different desert habitats in northwest C hina. We surveyed sequence variation for internal transcribed spacer ( ITS ), three chloroplast (cp) DNA fragments, and eight low‐copy nuclear genes among individuals sampled from 11 populations of each species across their geographic ranges. One ITS mutation distinguished the two species, whereas mutations in cp DNA and the eight low‐copy nuclear gene sequences were not species‐specific. Although interspecific divergence varied greatly among nuclear gene sequences, in each case divergence was estimated to have occurred within the P leistocene when deserts expanded in northwest C hina. Our findings point to the importance of P leistocene climate change, in this case an increase in aridity, as a cause of speciation in P ugionium as a result of divergence in different habitats that formed in association with the expansion of deserts in C hina.