Project description:Relict species play an important role in understanding the biogeography of intercontinental disjunctions. Pterocarya (a relict genus) is the valuable model taxon for studying the biogeography of East Asian versus southern European/West Asian disjunct patterns. This disjunction has not been as well studied as others (e.g., between Eastern Asia and North America). Several phylogenetic studies on Pterocarya have been conducted, but none have provided a satisfactory phylogenetic resolution. Here, we report the first well-resolved phylogeny of Pterocarya using restriction site-associated DNA sequencing data based on the sampling of all taxa across the entire distribution area of the genus. Taxonomic treatments were also clarified by combining morphological traits. Furthermore, fossil-calibrated phylogeny was used to explore the biogeography of Pterocarya. Our results support the existence of two sections in Pterocarya, which is in accordance with morphological taxonomy. Section Platyptera comprises three species: P. rhoifolia, P. macroptera, and P. delavayi. Section Pterocarya also comprises three species: P. fraxinifolia, P. hupehensis, and P. stenoptera. The divergence between the two sections took place during the early Miocene (20.5 Ma). The formation of the Gobi Desert and climate cooling of northern Siberia in the Middle Miocene (15.7 Ma) might have caused the split of the continuous distribution of this genus and the formation of the East Asian versus southern European/West Asian disjunct pattern. Lastly, the divergence between P. hupehensis and P. stenoptera as well as between P. rhoifolia and P. macroptera/P. delavayi (10.0 Ma) supports the late Miocene diversification hypothesis in East Asia.
Project description:Premise of the studyMicrosatellite markers of Pterocarya stenoptera (Juglandaceae) were developed for future studies on the population genetic diversity and spatial genetic structure of the species.Methods and resultsBased on Illumina sequencing of the transcriptome of P. stenoptera, a total of 2452 microsatellites were identified from 83,674 assembled unigenes. One hundred microsatellites were randomly selected to design amplification primer pairs. Of these, 15 were successfully amplified and displayed polymorphism. For these markers, the number of alleles per locus and population ranged from one to six. The levels of observed and expected heterozygosity varied from 0.000 to 1.000 and 0.000 to 0.718, respectively. Furthermore, all of the 15 loci were successfully cross-amplified in another congeneric species (P. hupehensis) and were demonstrated to be polymorphic.ConclusionsThe microsatellite loci described here can be used for future population genetic and landscape genetic studies on P. stenoptera.