'Out of Africa' origin of the pantropical staghorn fern genus Platycerium (Polypodiaceae) supported by plastid phylogenomics and biogeographical analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

The staghorn fern genus Platycerium is one of the most commonly grown ornamental ferns, and it evolved to occupy a typical pantropical intercontinental disjunction. However, species-level relationships in the genus have not been well resolved, and the spatiotemporal evolutionary history of the genus also needs to be explored.

Methods

Plastomes of all the 18 Platycerium species were newly sequenced. Using plastome data, we reconstructed the phylogenetic relationships among Polypodiaceae members with a focus on Platycerium species, and further conducted molecular dating and biogeographical analyses of the genus.

Key results

The present analyses yielded a robustly supported phylogenetic hypothesis of Platycerium. Molecular dating results showed that P

SUBMITTER: Xue B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11082476 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature