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Detailed Seed Cone Morpho-Anatomy Provides New Insights into Seed Cone Origin and Evolution of Podocarpaceae; Podocarpoid and Dacrydioid Clades

The study of reproductive morphology and trait evolution provides a vital insight to understand the evolutionary history of plants. The conifer family Podocarpaceae has a remarkable diversity of seed cones, with distinct morphology among the genera and with conifers in general. However, we lack a go...

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Autores principales: Khan, Raees, Hill, Robert S., Dörken, Veit M., Biffin, Ed
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10674377/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38005800
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants12223903
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author Khan, Raees
Hill, Robert S.
Dörken, Veit M.
Biffin, Ed
author_facet Khan, Raees
Hill, Robert S.
Dörken, Veit M.
Biffin, Ed
author_sort Khan, Raees
collection PubMed
description The study of reproductive morphology and trait evolution provides a vital insight to understand the evolutionary history of plants. The conifer family Podocarpaceae has a remarkable diversity of seed cones, with distinct morphology among the genera and with conifers in general. However, we lack a good understanding of the seed cone morpho-anatomy and trait evolution of Podocarpaceae. We investigated detailed seed cone morpho-anatomy using staining and sectioning techniques to clarify the anatomical, morphological diversity and evolution of functional traits. The presence of a fleshy receptaculum is a characteristic feature of both clades. However, species of Retrophyllum, Afrocarpus and some species of Nageia and Podocarpus form a fleshy sarcotesta-like seed coat, lacking a fleshy receptaculum. The ancestral state reconstructions show a shift between and sometimes within the genus. Although both clades demonstrate fleshiness as an ancestral trait, the shift in fleshy structures provides evidence for complex multiple evolutions of fleshy morphologies. These seed cone traits (e.g., fleshiness and size), along with the broad, flattened and well-adapted (leaf dimorphism) foliage in both clades, are largely congruent with efficient light harvesting and bird dispersal. These traits make these two clades well adapted to their environment, when growing in communities including tall and broad-leaved angiosperms (closed-canopy angiosperm forests), compared to other podocarps, making them more successful in achieving a wider distribution and species richness.
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spelling pubmed-106743772023-11-19 Detailed Seed Cone Morpho-Anatomy Provides New Insights into Seed Cone Origin and Evolution of Podocarpaceae; Podocarpoid and Dacrydioid Clades Khan, Raees Hill, Robert S. Dörken, Veit M. Biffin, Ed Plants (Basel) Article The study of reproductive morphology and trait evolution provides a vital insight to understand the evolutionary history of plants. The conifer family Podocarpaceae has a remarkable diversity of seed cones, with distinct morphology among the genera and with conifers in general. However, we lack a good understanding of the seed cone morpho-anatomy and trait evolution of Podocarpaceae. We investigated detailed seed cone morpho-anatomy using staining and sectioning techniques to clarify the anatomical, morphological diversity and evolution of functional traits. The presence of a fleshy receptaculum is a characteristic feature of both clades. However, species of Retrophyllum, Afrocarpus and some species of Nageia and Podocarpus form a fleshy sarcotesta-like seed coat, lacking a fleshy receptaculum. The ancestral state reconstructions show a shift between and sometimes within the genus. Although both clades demonstrate fleshiness as an ancestral trait, the shift in fleshy structures provides evidence for complex multiple evolutions of fleshy morphologies. These seed cone traits (e.g., fleshiness and size), along with the broad, flattened and well-adapted (leaf dimorphism) foliage in both clades, are largely congruent with efficient light harvesting and bird dispersal. These traits make these two clades well adapted to their environment, when growing in communities including tall and broad-leaved angiosperms (closed-canopy angiosperm forests), compared to other podocarps, making them more successful in achieving a wider distribution and species richness. MDPI 2023-11-19 /pmc/articles/PMC10674377/ /pubmed/38005800 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants12223903 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Khan, Raees
Hill, Robert S.
Dörken, Veit M.
Biffin, Ed
Detailed Seed Cone Morpho-Anatomy Provides New Insights into Seed Cone Origin and Evolution of Podocarpaceae; Podocarpoid and Dacrydioid Clades
title Detailed Seed Cone Morpho-Anatomy Provides New Insights into Seed Cone Origin and Evolution of Podocarpaceae; Podocarpoid and Dacrydioid Clades
title_full Detailed Seed Cone Morpho-Anatomy Provides New Insights into Seed Cone Origin and Evolution of Podocarpaceae; Podocarpoid and Dacrydioid Clades
title_fullStr Detailed Seed Cone Morpho-Anatomy Provides New Insights into Seed Cone Origin and Evolution of Podocarpaceae; Podocarpoid and Dacrydioid Clades
title_full_unstemmed Detailed Seed Cone Morpho-Anatomy Provides New Insights into Seed Cone Origin and Evolution of Podocarpaceae; Podocarpoid and Dacrydioid Clades
title_short Detailed Seed Cone Morpho-Anatomy Provides New Insights into Seed Cone Origin and Evolution of Podocarpaceae; Podocarpoid and Dacrydioid Clades
title_sort detailed seed cone morpho-anatomy provides new insights into seed cone origin and evolution of podocarpaceae; podocarpoid and dacrydioid clades
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10674377/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38005800
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants12223903
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