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Molecular analyses of Ficus erecta and its allies within the subsection Frutescentiae (Moraceae)

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Abstract

Ficus (Moraceae) is a keystone group in tropical and subtropical forests with remarkable diversity of species and taxonomical challenges as a consequence of fig–pollinator coevolution. Ficus subsect. Frutescentiae includes about 30 species that are predominantly shrubs or small trees with Terminalia branching. Many of these species are difficult to delimit morphologically, and the group includes a tangle of uncertain taxa and incorrectly applied names. We conducted a phylogenetic analysis with internal and external transcribed spacer data (ITS and ETS) and data from 18 polymorphic microsatellite loci to evaluate the species status of the most perplexing members of this subsection. The results confirm the monophyly of subsect. Frutescentiae, with F. pedunculosa as sister to the rest. The F. erecta complex comprises approximately 17 taxa: F. erecta, F. abelii, F. boninsimae, F. nishimurae, F. iidaiana, F. gasparriniana var. laceratifolia, F. gasparriniana var. viridescens, F. pyriformis, F. stenophylla, F. fusuiensis, F. fengkaiensis, F. sinociliata, F. tannoensis, F. vaccinioides, F. formosana, F. pandurata, and F. periptera. The last five of these were supported as good species, while the others were not well supported by the present evidence. Evidence also supported the status of the non-F. erecta complex species including. F. pedunculosa, F. ischnopoda, F. heteromorpha, and F. variolosa. Ficus filicauda and F. neriifolia are possibly conspecific. The species status of F. potingensis should be restored and it should be treated as a member of section Eriosycea. Identification of the remaining taxa (F. gasparriniana var. esquirolii, F. ruyuanensis, F. daimingshanensis, F. chapaensis, F. changii, F. trivia, and F. tuphapensis) and their relationships to the F. erecta complex were not clarified. As a whole, only ten species in this subsection are confirmed, one is excluded, one is synonymous, and the others are either unresolved or short of samples. There appears to be a consistent genetic background among these unresolved groups, which suggests that repeated hybridization (as a result of pollinator host shifts) has filled up the interspecific gaps during the fig–pollinator coevolution process.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31270242) and the work was carried out in the laboratory of the School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University. The authors of this paper are grateful to the curators of the herbaria P, KUN, IBK, IBSC, PE, UPS, and K for providing support by checking specimens or photos. The authors also thank Mr. Bin-Jie Ge, Qi Tian (Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, Shanghai, China), Mr. Shuang Wang, Ms. Ji-Yun Chen, Ping Gui, Shen-Zhan Xiong, Qiu-Shi Wang, Xiao-Mei Wang, and Hai-Yan Gao (East China Normal University) for their help in gathering specimens, and Dr. Dirk C. Albach (Carl von Ossietzky-Universität Oldenburg, Germany) for critical reading of the manuscript.

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  1. Qing-Mei Zhou

    Present address: College of Life Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

  2. Zhong-Ling Lu and Zhen Zhang have contributed equally to this study.

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  1. School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, China

    Zhong-Ling Lu, Zhen Zhang, Jing Lu, Huai-Zhen Tian & Hong-Qing Li

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Handling editor: Yunpeng Zhao.

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Online Resource 1. Details of samples included in this study.

Online Resource 2. Codom-genotypic data of the 18 polymorphic SSR loci.

Online Resource 3. Alignment for phylogenetic trees reconstruction based on ETS matrix.

Online Resource 4. Alignment for phylogenetic trees reconstruction based on ITS matrix.

Online Resource 5. Alignment for phylogenetic trees reconstruction based on ITS + ETS matrix.

Online Resource 6. Alignment for phylogenetic trees reconstruction based on psbA–trnH matrix.

Online Resource 7. The Bayesian majority consensus tree on psbA–trnH sequence data.

Online Resource 8. The Bayesian majority consensus tree from ITS sequence data.

Online Resource 9. The Bayesian majority consensus tree on ETS sequence data.

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Lu, ZL., Zhang, Z., Zhou, QM. et al. Molecular analyses of Ficus erecta and its allies within the subsection Frutescentiae (Moraceae). Plant Syst Evol 303, 603–614 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-017-1393-z

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