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Phylogeny of Alisma (Alismataceae) revisited: implications for polyploid evolution and species delimitation

  • Regular Paper – Taxonomy/Phylogenetics/Evolutionary Biology
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Abstract

Alisma L. is a genus of aquatic and wetland plants belonging to family Alismataceae. At present, it is thought to contain ten species. Variation in ploidy level is known in the genus, with diploids, tetraploids and hexaploids recorded. Previous molecular phylogenetic studies of Alisma have generated a robust backbone that reveals important aspects of the evolutionary history of this cosmopolitan genus, yet questions remain unresolved about the formation of the polyploid taxa and the taxonomy of one particularly challenging, widely distributed species complex. Here we directly sequenced, or cloned and sequenced, nuclear DNA (nrITS and phyA) and chloroplast DNA (matK, ndhF, psbA-trnH and rbcL) of multiple samples of six putative species and two varieties, and conducted molecular phylogenetic analyses. Alisma canaliculatum and its two varieties known in East Asia and A. rariflorum endemic to Japan possess closely related but heterogeneous genomes, strongly indicating that the two species were generated from two diploid progenitors, and are possibly siblings of one another. This evolutionary event may have occurred in Japan. Alisma canaliculatum var. canaliculatum is segregated into two types, each of which are geographically slightly differentiated in Japan. We reconstructed a single phylogeny based on the multi-locus data using Homologizer and then applied species delimitation analysis (STACEY). This allowed us to discern A. orientale as apparently endemic to the Southeast Asian Massif and distinct from the widespread A. plantago-aquatica. The former species was most likely formed through parapatric speciation at the southern edge of the distribution of the latter.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank A. Bobrov (IBIW) and E. Cameron (AK) for their hospitality during YI’s research visits; Nob. Tanaka (TNS), A. Naiki (Okinawa), T. Sugawara (MAK), S. Mifsud (Malta), and Z. Wu (KIB) for their kind help in YI’s field survey; S. Tagane (FU), T. Kuhara (Niigata), S. Chiba (Nagano), and S. Matsumoto (Hyogo), for providing a material of Alisma; H. Ono (Shimane), and C. Enju (Tsukuba), T. Godo (Toyama), T. Ohara (Toyama), and M. Nakata (Toyama) for supporting collection of materials of Alisma; C. Ishii (Tsukuba) for help with DNA sequencing and S. Gale (KFBG) for improving an earlier draft of the manuscript. This study was partly supported by the international cooperative project “Biological Inventory with special attention to Myanmar: Investigations of the origin of southern elements of Japanese flora and fauna” as the integrated research initiated by the National Museum of Nature and Science, Japan based on MoU between the Forest Department, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, Myanmar.

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  1. Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Setsunan University, 45-1 Nagaotoge-Cho, Hirakata, Osaka, 573-0101, Japan

    Yu Ito

  2. Department of Botany, National Museum of Nature and Science, Tsukuba, 305-0005, Japan

    Norio Tanaka

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  1. Yu Ito
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Ito, Y., Tanaka, N. Phylogeny of Alisma (Alismataceae) revisited: implications for polyploid evolution and species delimitation. J Plant Res 136, 613–629 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-023-01477-1

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