Transcriptome analysis reveals nutrition- and age-related patterns of gene expression in the fat body of pre-overwintering bumble bee queens.

Many diapausing insects undergo a nutrient storage period prior to their entry into diapause. Bumble bee queens diapause as adults in the winter preceding their spring nest initiation period. Before diapause, they sequester glycogen and lipids, which they metabolize during the overwintering period. We used RNA sequencing to examine how age and nectar diet (specifically, the concentration of sucrose in nectar) impact gene expression in the pre-overwintering bumble bee queen fat body, the "liver-like" organ in insects with broad functions related to nutrient storage and metabolism. We found that diet on its own, and in combination with age, impacts the expression of genes involved in detoxification. Age was also a strong driver of gene expression, especially at earlier ages (up to 3 days). In addition to these molecular correlates of diet and age, we also found a putative molecular signature of diapause entry or preparation in adult queens in the oldest age group (12 days) fed the most sucrose-rich diet, based on comparisons between our data set and another transcriptome data set from bumble bee queens. This transcriptomic pattern suggests that preparation for (or entry into) diapause might be in part mediated by nutritional state in bumble bee queens. Collectively, these findings show that there are molecular processes in the fat body that are responsive to sucrose levels in the diet and/or associated with age-related maturational changes. A better understanding of these processes may shed light on important aspects of bumble bee biology, such as queen responses to nutritional and other forms of stress, and the factors that regulate their entrance into diapause.

Worldwide relationships in the fern genus Pteridium (bracken) based on nuclear genome markers.

PREMISE: Spore-bearing plants are capable of dispersing very long distances. However, it is not known if gene flow can prevent genetic divergence in widely distributed taxa. Here we address this issue, and examine systematic relationships at a global geographic scale for the fern genus Pteridium. METHODS: We sampled plants from 100 localities worldwide, and generated nucleotide data from four nuclear genes and two plastid regions. We also examined 2801 single nucleotide polymorphisms detected by a restriction site-associated DNA approach. RESULTS: We found evidence for two distinct diploid species and two allotetraploids between them. The "northern" species (Pteridium aquilinum) has distinct groups at the continental scale (Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America). The northern European subspecies pinetorum appears to involve admixture among all of these. A sample from the Hawaiian Islands contained elements of both North American and Asian P. aquilinum. The "southern" species, P. esculentum, shows little genetic differentiation between South American and Australian samples. Components of African genotypes are detected on all continents. CONCLUSIONS: We find evidence of distinct continental-scale genetic differentiation in Pteridium. However, on top of this is a clear signal of recent hybridization. Thus, spore-bearing plants are clearly capable of extensive long-distance gene flow; yet appear to have differentiated genetically at the continental scale. Either gene flow in the past was at a reduced level, or vicariance is possible even in the face of long-distance gene flow.

Origin and diversification of wings: Insights from a neopteran insect.

Winged insects underwent an unparalleled evolutionary radiation, but mechanisms underlying the origin and diversification of wings in basal insects are sparsely known compared with more derived holometabolous insects. In the neopteran species Oncopeltus fasciatus, we manipulated wing specification genes and used RNA-seq to obtain both functional and genomic perspectives. Combined with previous studies, our results suggest the following key steps in wing origin and diversification. First, a set of dorsally derived outgrowths evolved along a number of body segments including the first thoracic segment (T1). Homeotic genes were subsequently co-opted to suppress growth of some dorsal flaps in the thorax and abdomen. In T1 this suppression was accomplished by Sex combs reduced, that when experimentally removed, results in an ectopic T1 flap similar to prothoracic winglets present in fossil hemipteroids and other early insects. Global gene-expression differences in ectopic T1 vs. T2/T3 wings suggest that the transition from flaps to wings required ventrally originating cells, homologous with those in ancestral arthropod gill flaps/epipods, to migrate dorsally and fuse with the dorsal flap tissue thereby bringing new functional gene networks; these presumably enabled the T2/T3 wing's increased size and functionality. Third, "fused" wings became both the wing blade and surrounding regions of the dorsal thorax cuticle, providing tissue for subsequent modifications including wing folding and the fit of folded wings. Finally, Ultrabithorax was co-opted to uncouple the morphology of T2 and T3 wings and to act as a general modifier of hindwings, which in turn governed the subsequent diversification of lineage-specific wing forms.

The butterfly plant arms-race escalated by gene and genome duplications.

Coevolutionary interactions are thought to have spurred the evolution of key innovations and driven the diversification of much of life on Earth. However, the genetic and evolutionary basis of the innovations that facilitate such interactions remains poorly understood. We examined the coevolutionary interactions between plants (Brassicales) and butterflies (Pieridae), and uncovered evidence for an escalating evolutionary arms-race. Although gradual changes in trait complexity appear to have been facilitated by allelic turnover, key innovations are associated with gene and genome duplications. Furthermore, we show that the origins of both chemical defenses and of molecular counter adaptations were associated with shifts in diversification rates during the arms-race. These findings provide an important connection between the origins of biodiversity, coevolution, and the role of gene and genome duplications as a substrate for novel traits.

Transcriptome analysis reveals the same 17 S-locus F-box genes in two haplotypes of the self-incompatibility locus of Petunia inflata.

Petunia possesses self-incompatibility, by which pistils reject self-pollen but accept non-self-pollen for fertilization. Self-/non-self-recognition between pollen and pistil is regulated by the pistil-specific S-RNase gene and by multiple pollen-specific S-locus F-box (SLF) genes. To date, 10 SLF genes have been identified by various methods, and seven have been shown to be involved in pollen specificity. For a given S-haplotype, each SLF interacts with a subset of its non-self S-RNases, and an as yet unknown number of SLFs are thought to collectively mediate ubiquitination and degradation of all non-self S-RNases to allow cross-compatible pollination. To identify a complete suite of SLF genes of P. inflata, we used a de novo RNA-seq approach to analyze the pollen transcriptomes of S2-haplotype and S3-haplotype, as well as the leaf transcriptome of the S3S3 genotype. We searched for genes that fit several criteria established from the properties of the known SLF genes and identified the same seven new SLF genes in S2-haplotype and S3-haplotype, suggesting that a total of 17 SLF genes constitute pollen specificity in each S-haplotype. This finding lays the foundation for understanding how multiple SLF genes evolved and the biochemical basis for differential interactions between SLF proteins and S-RNases.

Phylotranscriptomic analysis of the origin and early diversification of land plants.

Reconstructing the origin and evolution of land plants and their algal relatives is a fundamental problem in plant phylogenetics, and is essential for understanding how critical adaptations arose, including the embryo, vascular tissue, seeds, and flowers. Despite advances in molecular systematics, some hypotheses of relationships remain weakly resolved. Inferring deep phylogenies with bouts of rapid diversification can be problematic; however, genome-scale data should significantly increase the number of informative characters for analyses. Recent phylogenomic reconstructions focused on the major divergences of plants have resulted in promising but inconsistent results. One limitation is sparse taxon sampling, likely resulting from the difficulty and cost of data generation. To address this limitation, transcriptome data for 92 streptophyte taxa were generated and analyzed along with 11 published plant genome sequences. Phylogenetic reconstructions were conducted using up to 852 nuclear genes and 1,701,170 aligned sites. Sixty-nine analyses were performed to test the robustness of phylogenetic inferences to permutations of the data matrix or to phylogenetic method, including supermatrix, supertree, and coalescent-based approaches, maximum-likelihood and Bayesian methods, partitioned and unpartitioned analyses, and amino acid versus DNA alignments. Among other results, we find robust support for a sister-group relationship between land plants and one group of streptophyte green algae, the Zygnematophyceae. Strong and robust support for a clade comprising liverworts and mosses is inconsistent with a widely accepted view of early land plant evolution, and suggests that phylogenetic hypotheses used to understand the evolution of fundamental plant traits should be reevaluated.

Horizontal transfer of an adaptive chimeric photoreceptor from bryophytes to ferns.

Ferns are well known for their shade-dwelling habits. Their ability to thrive under low-light conditions has been linked to the evolution of a novel chimeric photoreceptor--neochrome--that fuses red-sensing phytochrome and blue-sensing phototropin modules into a single gene, thereby optimizing phototropic responses. Despite being implicated in facilitating the diversification of modern ferns, the origin of neochrome has remained a mystery. We present evidence for neochrome in hornworts (a bryophyte lineage) and demonstrate that ferns acquired neochrome from hornworts via horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Fern neochromes are nested within hornwort neochromes in our large-scale phylogenetic reconstructions of phototropin and phytochrome gene families. Divergence date estimates further support the HGT hypothesis, with fern and hornwort neochromes diverging 179 Mya, long after the split between the two plant lineages (at least 400 Mya). By analyzing the draft genome of the hornwort Anthoceros punctatus, we also discovered a previously unidentified phototropin gene that likely represents the ancestral lineage of the neochrome phototropin module. Thus, a neochrome originating in hornworts was transferred horizontally to ferns, where it may have played a significant role in the diversification of modern ferns.

Comparative transcriptome analyses reveal core parasitism genes and suggest gene duplication and repurposing as sources of structural novelty.

The origin of novel traits is recognized as an important process underlying many major evolutionary radiations. We studied the genetic basis for the evolution of haustoria, the novel feeding organs of parasitic flowering plants, using comparative transcriptome sequencing in three species of Orobanchaceae. Around 180 genes are upregulated during haustorial development following host attachment in at least two species, and these are enriched in proteases, cell wall modifying enzymes, and extracellular secretion proteins. Additionally, about 100 shared genes are upregulated in response to haustorium inducing factors prior to host attachment. Collectively, we refer to these newly identified genes as putative "parasitism genes." Most of these parasitism genes are derived from gene duplications in a common ancestor of Orobanchaceae and Mimulus guttatus, a related nonparasitic plant. Additionally, the signature of relaxed purifying selection and/or adaptive evolution at specific sites was detected in many haustorial genes, and may play an important role in parasite evolution. Comparative analysis of gene expression patterns in parasitic and nonparasitic angiosperms suggests that parasitism genes are derived primarily from root and floral tissues, but with some genes co-opted from other tissues. Gene duplication, often taking place in a nonparasitic ancestor of Orobanchaceae, followed by regulatory neofunctionalization, was an important process in the origin of parasitic haustoria.

Phylogenetic analysis of pectin-related gene families in Physcomitrella patens and nine other plant species yields evolutionary insights into cell walls.

BACKGROUND: Pectins are acidic sugar-containing polysaccharides that are universally conserved components of the primary cell walls of plants and modulate both tip and diffuse cell growth. However, many of their specific functions and the evolution of the genes responsible for producing and modifying them are incompletely understood. The moss Physcomitrella patens is emerging as a powerful model system for the study of plant cell walls. To identify deeply conserved pectin-related genes in Physcomitrella, we generated phylogenetic trees for 16 pectin-related gene families using sequences from ten plant genomes and analyzed the evolutionary relationships within these families. RESULTS: Contrary to our initial hypothesis that a single ancestral gene was present for each pectin-related gene family in the common ancestor of land plants, five of the 16 gene families, including homogalacturonan galacturonosyltransferases, polygalacturonases, pectin methylesterases, homogalacturonan methyltransferases, and pectate lyase-like proteins, show evidence of multiple members in the early land plant that gave rise to the mosses and vascular plants. Seven of the gene families, the UDP-rhamnose synthases, UDP-glucuronic acid epimerases, homogalacturonan galacturonosyltransferase-like proteins, ß-1,4-galactan ß-1,4-galactosyltransferases, rhamnogalacturonan II xylosyltransferases, and pectin acetylesterases appear to have had a single member in the common ancestor of land plants. We detected no Physcomitrella members in the xylogalacturonan xylosyltransferase, rhamnogalacturonan I arabinosyltransferase, pectin methylesterase inhibitor, or polygalacturonase inhibitor protein families. CONCLUSIONS: Several gene families related to the production and modification of pectins in plants appear to have multiple members that are conserved as far back as the common ancestor of mosses and vascular plants. The presence of multiple members of these families even before the divergence of other important cell wall-related genes, such as cellulose synthases, suggests a more complex role than previously suspected for pectins in the evolution of land plants. The presence of relatively small pectin-related gene families in Physcomitrella as compared to Arabidopsis makes it an attractive target for analysis of the functions of pectins in cell walls. In contrast, the absence of genes in Physcomitrella for some families suggests that certain pectin modifications, such as homogalacturonan xylosylation, arose later during land plant evolution.

Functional genomics of a generalist parasitic plant: laser microdissection of host-parasite interface reveals host-specific patterns of parasite gene expression.

BACKGROUND: Orobanchaceae is the only plant family with members representing the full range of parasitic lifestyles plus a free-living lineage sister to all parasitic lineages, Lindenbergia. A generalist member of this family, and an important parasitic plant model, Triphysaria versicolor regularly feeds upon a wide range of host plants. Here, we compare de novo assembled transcriptomes generated from laser micro-dissected tissues at the host-parasite interface to uncover details of the largely uncharacterized interaction between parasitic plants and their hosts. RESULTS: The interaction of Triphysaria with the distantly related hosts Zea mays and Medicago truncatula reveals dramatic host-specific gene expression patterns. Relative to above ground tissues, gene families are disproportionally represented at the interface including enrichment for transcription factors and genes of unknown function. Quantitative Real-Time PCR of a T. versicolor ß-expansin shows strong differential (120x) upregulation in response to the monocot host Z. mays; a result that is concordant with our read count estimates. Pathogenesis-related proteins, other cell wall modifying enzymes, and orthologs of genes with unknown function (annotated as such in sequenced plant genomes) are among the parasite genes highly expressed by T. versicolor at the parasite-host interface. CONCLUSIONS: Laser capture microdissection makes it possible to sample the small region of cells at the epicenter of parasite host interactions. The results of our analysis suggest that T. versicolor's generalist strategy involves a reliance on overlapping but distinct gene sets, depending upon the host plant it is parasitizing. The massive upregulation of a T. versicolor ß-expansin is suggestive of a mechanism for parasite success on grass hosts. In this preliminary study of the interface transcriptomes, we have shown that T. versicolor, and the Orobanchaceae in general, provide excellent opportunities for the characterization of plant genes with unknown functions.

De novo characterization of the gametophyte transcriptome in bracken fern, Pteridium aquilinum.

BACKGROUND: Because of their phylogenetic position and unique characteristics of their biology and life cycle, ferns represent an important lineage for studying the evolution of land plants. Large and complex genomes in ferns combined with the absence of economically important species have been a barrier to the development of genomic resources. However, high throughput sequencing technologies are now being widely applied to non-model species. We leveraged the Roche 454 GS-FLX Titanium pyrosequencing platform in sequencing the gametophyte transcriptome of bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) to develop genomic resources for evolutionary studies. RESULTS: 681,722 quality and adapter trimmed reads totaling 254 Mbp were assembled de novo into 56,256 unique sequences (i.e. unigenes) with a mean length of 547.2 bp and a total assembly size of 30.8 Mbp with an average read-depth coverage of 7.0×. We estimate that 87% of the complete transcriptome has been sequenced and that all transcripts have been tagged. 61.8% of the unigenes had blastx hits in the NCBI nr protein database, representing 22,596 unique best hits. The longest open reading frame in 52.2% of the unigenes had positive domain matches in InterProScan searches. We assigned 46.2% of the unigenes with a GO functional annotation and 16.0% with an enzyme code annotation. Enzyme codes were used to retrieve and color KEGG pathway maps. A comparative genomics approach revealed a substantial proportion of genes expressed in bracken gametophytes to be shared across the genomes of Arabidopsis, Selaginella and Physcomitrella, and identified a substantial number of potentially novel fern genes. By comparing the list of Arabidopsis genes identified by blast with a list of gametophyte-specific Arabidopsis genes taken from the literature, we identified a set of potentially conserved gametophyte specific genes. We screened unigenes for repetitive sequences to identify 548 potentially-amplifiable simple sequence repeat loci and 689 expressed transposable elements. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first comprehensive transcriptome analysis for a fern and represents an important scientific resource for comparative evolutionary and functional genomics studies in land plants. We demonstrate the utility of high-throughput sequencing of a normalized cDNA library for de novo transcriptome characterization and gene discovery in a non-model plant.

The evolution of chloroplast genes and genomes in ferns.

Most of the publicly available data on chloroplast (plastid) genes and genomes come from seed plants, with relatively little information from their sister group, the ferns. Here we describe several broad evolutionary patterns and processes in fern plastid genomes (plastomes), and we include some new plastome sequence data. We review what we know about the evolutionary history of plastome structure across the fern phylogeny and we compare plastome organization and patterns of evolution in ferns to those in seed plants. A large clade of ferns is characterized by a plastome that has been reorganized with respect to the ancestral gene order (a similar order that is ancestral in seed plants). We review the sequence of inversions that gave rise to this organization. We also explore global nucleotide substitution patterns in ferns versus those found in seed plants across plastid genes, and we review the high levels of RNA editing observed in fern plastomes.

Genome Sequence of Striga asiatica Provides Insight into the Evolution of Plant Parasitism.

Parasitic plants in the genus Striga, commonly known as witchweeds, cause major crop losses in sub-Saharan Africa and pose a threat to agriculture worldwide. An understanding of Striga parasite biology, which could lead to agricultural solutions, has been hampered by the lack of genome information. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of Striga asiatica with 34,577 predicted protein-coding genes, which reflects gene family contractions and expansions that are consistent with a three-phase model of parasitic plant genome evolution. Striga seeds germinate in response to host-derived strigolactones (SLs) and then develop a specialized penetration structure, the haustorium, to invade the host root. A family of SL receptors has undergone a striking expansion, suggesting a molecular basis for the evolution of broad host range among Striga spp. We found that genes involved in lateral root development in non-parasitic model species are coordinately induced during haustorium development in Striga, suggesting a pathway that was partly co-opted during the evolution of the haustorium. In addition, we found evidence for horizontal transfer of host genes as well as retrotransposons, indicating gene flow to S. asiatica from hosts. Our results provide valuable insights into the evolution of parasitism and a key resource for the future development of Striga control strategies.

Overlapping Patterns of Gene Expression Between Gametophyte and Sporophyte Phases in the Fern Polypodium amorphum (Polypodiales).

Ferns are unique among land plants in having sporophyte and gametophyte phases that are both free living and fully independent. Here, we examine patterns of sporophytic and gametophytic gene expression in the fern Polypodium amorphum, a member of the homosporous polypod lineage that comprises 80% of extant fern diversity, to assess how expression of a common genome is partitioned between two morphologically, ecologically, and nutritionally independent phases. Using RNA-sequencing, we generated transcriptome profiles for three replicates of paired samples of sporophyte leaf tissue and whole gametophytes to identify genes with significant differences in expression between the two phases. We found a nearly 90% overlap in the identity and expression levels of the genes expressed in both sporophytes and gametophytes, with less than 3% of genes uniquely expressed in either phase. We compare our results to those from similar studies to establish how phase-specific gene expression varies among major land plant lineages. Notably, despite having greater similarity in the identity of gene families shared between P. amorphum and angiosperms, P. amorphum has phase-specific gene expression profiles that are more like bryophytes and lycophytes than seed plants. Our findings suggest that shared patterns of phase-specific gene expression among seed-free plants likely reflect having relatively large, photosynthetic gametophytes (compared to the gametophytes of seed plants that are highly reduced). Phylogenetic analyses were used to further investigate the evolution of phase-specific expression for the phototropin, terpene synthase, and MADS-box gene families.

Fern genomes elucidate land plant evolution and cyanobacterial symbioses.

Ferns are the closest sister group to all seed plants, yet little is known about their genomes other than that they are generally colossal. Here, we report on the genomes of Azolla filiculoides and Salvinia cucullata (Salviniales) and present evidence for episodic whole-genome duplication in ferns-one at the base of 'core leptosporangiates' and one specific to Azolla. One fern-specific gene that we identified, recently shown to confer high insect resistance, seems to have been derived from bacteria through horizontal gene transfer. Azolla coexists in a unique symbiosis with N2-fixing cyanobacteria, and we demonstrate a clear pattern of cospeciation between the two partners. Furthermore, the Azolla genome lacks genes that are common to arbuscular mycorrhizal and root nodule symbioses, and we identify several putative transporter genes specific to Azolla-cyanobacterial symbiosis. These genomic resources will help in exploring the biotechnological potential of Azolla and address fundamental questions in the evolution of plant life.

Selecting Superior De Novo Transcriptome Assemblies: Lessons Learned by Leveraging the Best Plant Genome.

Whereas de novo assemblies of RNA-Seq data are being published for a growing number of species across the tree of life, there are currently no broadly accepted methods for evaluating such assemblies. Here we present a detailed comparison of 99 transcriptome assemblies, generated with 6 de novo assemblers including CLC, Trinity, SOAP, Oases, ABySS and NextGENe. Controlled analyses of de novo assemblies for Arabidopsis thaliana and Oryza sativa transcriptomes provide new insights into the strengths and limitations of transcriptome assembly strategies. We find that the leading assemblers generate reassuringly accurate assemblies for the majority of transcripts. At the same time, we find a propensity for assemblers to fail to fully assemble highly expressed genes. Surprisingly, the instance of true chimeric assemblies is very low for all assemblers. Normalized libraries are reduced in highly abundant transcripts, but they also lack 1000s of low abundance transcripts. We conclude that the quality of de novo transcriptome assemblies is best assessed through consideration of a combination of metrics: 1) proportion of reads mapping to an assembly 2) recovery of conserved, widely expressed genes, 3) N50 length statistics, and 4) the total number of unigenes. We provide benchmark Illumina transcriptome data and introduce SCERNA, a broadly applicable modular protocol for de novo assembly improvement. Finally, our de novo assembly of the Arabidopsis leaf transcriptome revealed ~20 putative Arabidopsis genes lacking in the current annotation.

Detecting and Characterizing the Highly Divergent Plastid Genome of the Nonphotosynthetic Parasitic Plant Hydnora visseri (Hydnoraceae).

Plastid genomes of photosynthetic flowering plants are usually highly conserved in both structure and gene content. However, the plastomes of parasitic and mycoheterotrophic plants may be released from selective constraint due to the reduction or loss of photosynthetic ability. Here we present the greatly reduced and highly divergent, yet functional, plastome of the nonphotosynthetic holoparasite Hydnora visseri (Hydnoraceae, Piperales). The plastome is 27 kb in length, with 24 genes encoding ribosomal proteins, ribosomal RNAs, tRNAs, and a few nonbioenergetic genes, but no genes related to photosynthesis. The inverted repeat and the small single copy region are only approximately 1.5 kb, and intergenic regions have been drastically reduced. Despite extreme reduction, gene order and orientation are highly similar to the plastome of Piper cenocladum, a related photosynthetic plant in Piperales. Gene sequences in Hydnora are highly divergent and several complementary approaches using the highest possible sensitivity were required for identification and annotation of this plastome. Active transcription is detected for all of the protein-coding genes in the plastid genome, and one of two introns is appropriately spliced out of rps12 transcripts. The whole-genome shotgun read depth is 1,400× coverage for the plastome, whereas the mitochondrial genome is covered at 40× and the nuclear genome at 2×. Despite the extreme reduction of the genome and high sequence divergence, the presence of syntenic, long transcriptionally active open-reading frames with distant similarity to other plastid genomes and a high plastome stoichiometry relative to the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes suggests that the plastome remains functional in H. visseri. A four-stage model of gene reduction, including the potential for complete plastome loss, is proposed to account for the range of plastid genomes in nonphotosynthetic plants.

Discovery of the photosynthetic relatives of the "Maltese mushroom" Cynomorium.

BACKGROUND: Although recent molecular phylogenetic studies have identified the photosynthetic relatives of several enigmatic holoparasitic angiosperms, uncertainty remains for the last parasitic plant order, Balanophorales, often considered to include two families, Balanophoraceae and Cynomoriaceae. The nonphotosynthetic (holoparasitic) flowering plant Cynomorium coccineum has long been known to the Muslim world as "tarthuth" and to Europeans as the "Maltese mushroom"; C. songaricum is known in Chinese medicine as "suo yang." Interest in these plants is increasing and they are being extensively collected from wild populations for use in herbal medicines. RESULTS: Here we report molecular phylogenetic analyses of nuclear ribosomal DNA and mitochondrial matR sequence data that strongly support the independent origin of Balanophoraceae and Cynomoriaceae. Analyses of single gene and combined gene data sets place Cynomorium in Saxifragales, possibly near Crassulaceae (stonecrop family). Balanophoraceae appear related to Santalales (sandalwood order), a position previously suggested from morphological characters that are often assumed to be convergent. CONCLUSION: Our work shows that Cynomorium and Balanophoraceae are not closely related as indicated in all past and present classifications. Thus, morphological features, such as inflorescences bearing numerous highly reduced flowers, are convergent and were attained independently by these two holoparasite lineages. Given the widespread harvest of wild Cynomorium species for herbal medicines, we here raise conservation concerns and suggest that further molecular phylogenetic work is needed to identify its photosynthetic relatives. These relatives, which will be easier to cultivate, should then be examined for phytochemical activity purported to be present in the more sensitive Cynomorium.

Origins and diversity of a cosmopolitan fern genus on an island archipelago.

Isolated oceanic islands are characterized by patterns of biological diversity different from that on nearby continental mainlands. Isolation can provide the opportunity for evolutionary divergence, but also set the stage for hybridization between related taxa arriving from different sources. Ferns disperse by haploid spores, which are produced in large numbers and can travel long distances in air currents, enabling these plants to become established on most oceanic islands. Here, we examine the origins and patterns of diversity of the cosmopolitan fern genus Pteridium (Dennstaedtiaceae; bracken) on the Galapagos Islands. We use nucleotide sequences from two plastid genes, and two nuclear gene markers, to examine phylogeography of Pteridium on the Galapagos Islands. We incorporate data from a previous study to provide a worldwide context. We also sampled new specimens from South and Central America. We used flow cytometry to estimate genome size of some accessions. We found that both plastid and nuclear haplotypes fall into two distinct clades, consistent with a two-diploid-species taxonomy of P. aquilinum and P. esculentum. As predicted, the allotetraploid P. caudatum possesses nuclear haplotypes from both diploid species. Samples from the Galapagos include P. esculentum subsp. arachnoideum, P. caudatum and possible hybrids between them. Multiple Pteridium taxa were also observed growing together at some sites. We find evidence for multiple origins of Pteridium on the Galapagos Islands and multiple origins of tetraploid P. caudatum throughout its range in Central and South America. We also posit that P. caudatum may include recent diploid hybrids, backcrosses to P. esculentum, as well as allotetraploid plants. The Galapagos Islands are positioned close to the equator where they can receive dispersing propagules from both hemispheres. This may partly explain the high levels of diversity found for this cosmopolitan fern on these islands.

An Exploration into Fern Genome Space.

Ferns are one of the few remaining major clades of land plants for which a complete genome sequence is lacking. Knowledge of genome space in ferns will enable broad-scale comparative analyses of land plant genes and genomes, provide insights into genome evolution across green plants, and shed light on genetic and genomic features that characterize ferns, such as their high chromosome numbers and large genome sizes. As part of an initial exploration into fern genome space, we used a whole genome shotgun sequencing approach to obtain low-density coverage (∼0.4X to 2X) for six fern species from the Polypodiales (Ceratopteris, Pteridium, Polypodium, Cystopteris), Cyatheales (Plagiogyria), and Gleicheniales (Dipteris). We explore these data to characterize the proportion of the nuclear genome represented by repetitive sequences (including DNA transposons, retrotransposons, ribosomal DNA, and simple repeats) and protein-coding genes, and to extract chloroplast and mitochondrial genome sequences. Such initial sweeps of fern genomes can provide information useful for selecting a promising candidate fern species for whole genome sequencing. We also describe variation of genomic traits across our sample and highlight some differences and similarities in repeat structure between ferns and seed plants.