Phylogeny and Biogeography of the Genus Ainsliaea (Asteraceae) in the Sino-Japanese Region based on Nuclear rDNA and Plastid DNA Sequence Data

Abstract

The results suggest that Ainsliaea species evolved allopatrically and that the descendants were isolated in the eastern (between SE China and Japan, through Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands) and western (Yunnan Province and its surrounding areas, including the Himalayas, the temperate region of Southeast Asia, and Sichuan Province) sides of the Sino-Japanese region. The results suggest that two distinct lineages of Ainsliaea have independently evolved in environmentally heterogeneous regions within the Sino-Japanese region. These regions have maintained rich and original floras due to their diverse climates and topographies.

Recent origin and adaptive diversification of Ainsliaea (Asteraceae) in the Ryukyu Islands: molecular phylogenetic inference using nuclear microsatellite markers

“…We used A. fragrans and A. gracilis (both from Guangdong Province, China) as outgroups. These species are the most closely related to the group of Ryukyu Ainsliaea based on a previous molecular phylogenetic analysis (Mitsui et al 2008). …”

“…The previous molecular phylogenetic analysis of the genus Ainsliaea based on nrITS sequence variations estimated that the Ryukyu and Taiwan clade had diverged from the southeastern Chinese clade at 0.31 (±0.12) mya (Mitsui et al 2008). Based on this estimate, the divergence between the populations of A. macroclinidioides in the southern and the northern Ryukyus occurred within the past few hundred thousand years.…”

“…A previous molecular phylogeny of Ainsliaea by Mitsui et al (2008) showed that the four species in the Ryukyu Islands were supported as a monophyletic group (bootstrap = 80%) based on nuclear internal and external transcribed spacers (nrITS and ETS) and chloroplast ndhF sequences, although A. macroclinidioides is highly paraphyletic among regions (suggesting that A. macroclinidioides from southeast China may be a different species, i.e., A. kawakamii Hayata; Freire 2007). The phylogenetic relationships among the four Ryukyu species remain uncertain due to little differentiation in DNA sequence data among these species despite considerable morphological and ecological divergence (Mitsui et al 2008).…”

“…The phylogenetic relationships among the four Ryukyu species remain uncertain due to little differentiation in DNA sequence data among these species despite considerable morphological and ecological divergence (Mitsui et al 2008). Moreover, no sequence variation occurs in more than 10 coding and noncoding cpDNA regions (about 6,000 bp) (Mitsui, unpublished data).…”

Nuclear and plastid DNA data confirm that Sedum tosaense (Crassulaceae) has a disjunct distribution between Pacific mainland Japan and Jeju Island, Korea

“…Several disjunct distributions in seed plants have been confirmed by molecular evidence, such as between North and South America (e.g., Spalik et al 2010;Popp et al 2011), between East Asia and North America (e.g., Huang et al, 2013), between Japan and Australia (e.g., Nakamura et al 2012;Kokubugata et al 2012), and between the Japanese Mainland and Taiwan (e.g., Mitsui et al 2008).…”