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Lucky morning glory, Calystegia felix (Convolvulaceae): a new species from Southern California, with notes on the historical ecology of the Chino cienega belt.

ABSTRACT: A new morning glory, Calystegia felixProvance & A.C. Sanders sp. nov. (Convolvulaceae), is described from the Los Angeles, San Gabriel, and Santa Ana River basins. Historical collections of the species, which prior to 2011 had not been seen alive in 94 years, have been misidentified as Calystegia sepium (L.) R. Br. subsp. binghamiae (Greene) Brummitt. The undescribed species was rediscovered in the City of Chino in April of 2011, a few miles north of the location where the most recent previous collection had been made by I. M. Johnston in 1917. The plants were found just prior to their likely destruction by grading and trenching for an underground power line. Intensive searches have resulted in the discovery of five additional occurrences, all of them in the City of Chino. Calystegia felix is at high risk of soon becoming extinct in the wild. All of the known extant occurrences are associated with well-watered landscaping on recently completed industrial, commercial, and residential developments. Every known living occurrence is within the limits of a ciénega belt, which is now mostly historical. Otherwise, the new species is only known only from collections made around the turn of the 20(th) century in what are now heavily urbanized areas, including one from South Los Angeles and another from Pico Rivera in Los Angeles County. Calystegia felix lacks the large bracts that immediately subtend, and enclose the calyx, which are always present in members of the Calystegia sepium complex. Affinities to Calystegia felix are found among other western US species with graduated sepals and small, often somewhat remote bracts. We discuss the enduring confusion between Calystegia felix and Calystegia sepium subsp. binghamiae, and differentiate the new species from some of its more likely relatives. The taxonomic treatment is supplemented by photos of herbarium specimens and living plants. We also discuss the ecological setting of Chino's ciénega belt, which was a mosaic of palustrine wetlands.

SUBMITTER: Provance MC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3881349 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Lucky morning glory, Calystegia felix (Convolvulaceae): a new species from Southern California, with notes on the historical ecology of the Chino ciénega belt.

Provance Mitchell C MC Sanders Andrew C AC

PhytoKeys 20131218 32

A new morning glory, Calystegia felixProvance & A.C. Sanders sp. nov. (Convolvulaceae), is described from the Los Angeles, San Gabriel, and Santa Ana River basins. Historical collections of the species, which prior to 2011 had not been seen alive in 94 years, have been misidentified as Calystegia sepium (L.) R. Br. subsp. binghamiae (Greene) Brummitt. The undescribed species was rediscovered in the City of Chino in April of 2011, a few miles north of the location where the most recent previous c ...[more]

PMID: 24399903

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Project description:BackgroundStorage roots are an ecologically and agriculturally important plant trait that have evolved numerous times in angiosperms. Storage roots primarily function to store carbohydrates underground as reserves for perennial species. In morning glories, storage roots are well characterized in the crop species sweetpotato, where starch accumulates in storage roots. This starch-storage tissue proliferates, and roots thicken to accommodate the additional tissue. In morning glories, storage roots have evolved numerous times. The primary goal of this study is to understand whether this was through parallel evolution, where species use a common genetic mechanism to achieve storage root formation, or through convergent evolution, where storage roots in distantly related species are formed using a different set of genes. Pairs of species where one forms storage roots and the other does not were sampled from two tribes in the morning glory family, the Ipomoeeae and Merremieae. Root anatomy in storage roots and fine roots was examined. Furthermore, we sequenced total mRNA from storage roots and fine roots in these species and analyzed differential gene expression.ResultsAnatomical results reveal that storage roots of species in the Ipomoeeae tribe, such as sweetpotato, accumulate starch similar to species in the Merremieae tribe but differ in vascular tissue organization. In both storage root forming species, more genes were found to be upregulated in storage roots compared to fine roots. Further, we find that fifty-seven orthologous genes were differentially expressed between storage roots and fine roots in both storage root forming species. These genes are primarily involved in starch biosynthesis, regulation of starch biosynthesis, and transcription factor activity.ConclusionsTaken together, these results demonstrate that storage roots of species from both morning glory tribes are anatomically different but utilize a common core set of genes in storage root formation. This is consistent with a pattern of parallel evolution, thus highlighting the importance of examining anatomy together with gene expression to understand the evolutionary origins of ecologically and economically important plant traits.

Project description:A common evolutionary trend in highly selfing plants is the evolution of the "selfing syndrome", in which traits associated with pollinator attraction are lost or greatly reduced. Limited information is available on whether these trait reductions are favored by natural selection or result from reduced purifying selection coupled with genetic drift. This study attempted to distinguish between these two possibilities for the evolutionary loss of floral pigmentation in the highly selfing species Ipomoea lacunosa. This study also tested the hypothesis that loss of floral pigmentation is caused by downregulation or loss of function in a tissue-specific anthocyanin transcription factor, as has been found in other plants. F2 individuals of a cross between white and pigmented individuals revealed segregation at two epistatically acting loci: one affecting pigmentation in both corolla throat and limbs (Anl1) and one affecting limb pigmentation (Anl2). Individuals that are homozygous for the "white" allele at Anl1 have white throats and limbs regardless of genotype at Anl2. In individuals with pigmented throats, homozygosity of the "white" allele at Anl2 produces white limbs. Flower color variation at Anl1 cosegregates with an R2R3-Myb anthocyanin transcription factor, which is down-regulated in white-flowers but not in pigmented flowers. Differential expression of the two alleles of this gene indicates that down regulation is caused by a cis-regulatory change. Finally, allele-frequency differences at Anl1 were substantially and significantly greater than differences in allele frequencies at four microsatellite loci. These results are consistent with the hypotheses that the identified R2R3-Myb gene corresponds to Anl1 and that evolutionary loss of pigmentation in I. lacunosa was caused by selection. They are also consistent with previous studies demonstrating that loss of floral pigmentation is usually caused by down-regulation or functional inactivation of an R2R3-Myb gene.

Dataset Information

Lucky morning glory, Calystegia felix (Convolvulaceae): a new species from Southern California, with notes on the historical ecology of the Chino cienega belt.

Publications

Lucky morning glory, Calystegia felix (Convolvulaceae): a new species from Southern California, with notes on the historical ecology of the Chino ciénega belt.

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