The phylogeographic structure of Hydrilla verticillata (Hydrocharitaceae) in China and its implications for the biogeographic history of this worldwide-distributed submerged macrophyte

BMC Evolutionary Biology

Research Article

Dan Yu¹  Jinning Zhu¹  Xinwei Xu¹ 

[1] National Field Station of Freshwater Ecosystem of Liangzi Lake, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, PR China;

关键词: Biogeography;    China;    Hydrilla;    Phylogeographic structure;    Submerged macrophyte;    trn;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12862-015-0381-6

 received in 2014-10-19, accepted in 2015-05-15,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAquatic vascular plants are a distinctive group, differing from terrestrial plants in their growth forms and habitats. Among the various aquatic plant life forms, the evolutionary processes of freshwater submerged species are most likely distinct due to their exclusive occurrence in the discrete and patchy aquatic habitats. Using the chloroplast trnL-F region sequence data, we investigated the phylogeographic structure of a submerged macrophyte, Hydrilla verticillata, the single species in the genus Hydrilla, throughout China, in addition to combined sample data from other countries to reveal the colonisation and diversification processes of this species throughout the world.ResultsWe sequenced 681 individuals from 123 sampling locations throughout China and identified a significant phylogeographic structure (NST > GST, p < 0.01), in which four distinct lineages occurred in different areas. A high level of genetic differentiation among populations (global FST = 0.820) was detected. The divergence of Hydrilla was estimated to have occurred in the late Miocene, and the diversification of various clades was dated to the Pleistocene epoch. Biogeographic analyses suggested an East Asian origin of Hydrilla and its subsequent dispersal throughout the world.ConclusionsThe presence of all four clades in China indicates that China is most likely the centre of Hydrilla genetic diversity. The worldwide distribution of Hydrilla is due to recent vicariance and dispersal events that occurred in different clades during the Pleistocene. Our findings also provide useful information for the management of invasive Hydrilla in North America.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Zhu et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.