Revisiting the phylogeny of Melastomataceae in the era of genomics– Project Phase II

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Gudrun Kadereit
• Subject Area: Evolution and Systematics of Plants and Fungi
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 441541553

In 2021, we initiated a collaboration across four international labs creating a robust phylogenetic framework for the Melastomataceae using genome-scale data. By leveraging diverse expertise and resources, we achieved a comprehensive understanding one of the most diverse pantropical plant families. Here we propose a continuation of this study, including collaborative analyses of the acquired data with our partners on the family-wide biogeography, sources of tree discordance across the family and evolution of family-wide important traits, and including a project in our group focussing specifically on the systematics, biogeography, and evolution of the third largest genus of the family, Medinilla. Within the Medinilla project we first focus on Madagascar as one of the centres of diversity of the genus, studying the evolutionary relationships and natural groupings within Malagasy Medinilla. We then also include a broad sampling of the entire distribution range of the genus to clarify its origin and spread from/to Madagascar across SE Asia to Polynesia. We re-examine the Out-of-Asia hypothesis for the Malagasy lineage which is unique for Melastomataceae and relate timeline with dispersal events in Medinilla. We will investigate the convergent evolution of epiphytic life-style and morphological traits associated with epiphytism in Medinilla. We hypothesise that climbing and epiphyte adaptation strategies allowed Medinilla to rapidly spread and thrive in diverse tropical environments evolving similar phenotypes over and over again. A better understanding of the modes of diversification of Medinilla will aid to up-date the taxonomy of this widespread genus and reveal important insight in the evolution of epiphytes in general. We shift from HypSeq to deep genome skimming in our study as we discovered an outstanding loci recovery for all target loci plus c. 5000 additional loci which means a much more cost-effective sequencing strategy.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Marie Claire Veranso-Libalah, Ph.D.