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Climbers: Evolution and Diversification in Angiosperm

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Biotechnological strategies for the conservation of medicinal and ornamental climbers

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Abstract

Climbers are the perfect example of the economy of nature by using maximum utilization of sunlight, water, and nutrients in minimum expanse of vegetation support. During food scarcity, they serve as the best food source for various animals. Climbers are also the best source of medicine, vegetable, and fruit. They cover a broad range of light through both supported (climbing) and unsupported (creeping) individuals. Due to their broad ecological niche (ranging from forest floor to the forest canopy), they provide a greater exposure to different pollinators that favor the ecological specialization. Climbers show a key innovation in angiosperm evolution because of species richness as compared to the non-climbing sister group. Climbers are found among ancestral groups of dicotyledons (such as the Piperales and Austrobaileyales) and monocotyledons (e.g., Dioscoreaceae, Arecaceae, and Araceae). Their phylogenetic breadth from rosids to asterids strongly supports multiple origins of the climbing habit within the angiosperms. Prior to the angiosperms’ evolution, variations among climbers pose the hypothesis that climbers of the past had an important role in tropical forests, at least in the Paleozoic era. In contrast, small contribution of climbers to Mesozoic ecosystems might be due to few detailed morphological and anatomical studies capable of identifying fossil lianas, as well as because of inhospitable conditions for growth and fossilization.

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Acknowledgment

Dr. Shiwali Sharma is thankful to DST, for the award of Young Scientist under Fast Track Scheme, SERB (vide no. SB/FT/LS-364/2012), for providing research assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Biotechnology Section, Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, UP, 202 002, India

    Shiwali Sharma & Anwar Shahzad

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  1. Shiwali Sharma
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  2. Anwar Shahzad
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Correspondence to Shiwali Sharma .

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  1. Plant Biotechnology Section, Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Anwar Shahzad

  2. Plant Biotechnology Section, Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Shiwali Sharma

  3. Plant Biotechnology Section, Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Saeed A. Siddiqui

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Sharma, S., Shahzad, A. (2016). Climbers: Evolution and Diversification in Angiosperm. In: Shahzad, A., Sharma, S., Siddiqui, S. (eds) Biotechnological strategies for the conservation of medicinal and ornamental climbers. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19288-8_1

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