Do woody vines use gelatinous fibers to climb?

Many plant movements are facilitated by contractile cells called gelatinous fibers (G-fibers), but how G-fibers function in the climbing movements of woody vines remains underexplored. In this Insight, we compare the presence and distribution of G-fibers in the stems of stem-twiners, which wrap around supports, with non-stem-twiners, which attach to supports via tendrils or adventitious roots. An examination of 164 species spanning the vascular plant phylogeny reveals that G-fibers are common in stem-twiners but scarce in non-stem-twiners, suggesting that G-fibers are preferentially formed in the organ responsible for movement. When present, G-fibers are in the xylem, phloem, pericycle, and/or cortex. We discuss the hypothesis that G-fibers are foundational to plant movement and highlight research opportunities concerning G-fiber development and function.

Climbing since the early Miocene: The fossil record of Paullinieae (Sapindaceae).

Paullinieae are a diverse group of tropical and subtropical climbing plants that belong to the soapberry family (Sapindaceae). The six genera in this tribe make up approximately one-quarter of the species in the family, but a sparse fossil record limits our understanding of their diversification. Here, we provide the first description of anatomically preserved fossils of Paullinieae and we re-evaluate other macrofossils that have been attributed to the tribe. We identified permineralized fossil roots in collections from the lower Miocene Cucaracha Formation where it was exposed along the Culebra Cut of the Panama Canal. We prepared the fossils using the cellulose acetate peel technique and compared the anatomy with that of extant Paullinieae. The fossil roots preserve a combination of characters found only in Paullinieae, including peripheral secondary vascular strands, vessel dimorphism, alternate intervessel pitting with coalescent apertures, heterocellular rays, and axial parenchyma strands of 2-4 cells, often with prismatic crystals. We also searched the paleontological literature for other occurrences of the tribe. We re-evaluated leaf fossils from western North America that have been assigned to extant genera in the tribe by comparing their morphology to herbarium specimens and cleared leaves. The fossil leaves that were assigned to Cardiospermum and Serjania from the Paleogene of western North America are likely Sapindaceae; however, they lack diagnostic characters necessary for inclusion in Paullinieae and should be excluded from those genera. Therefore, the fossils described here as Ampelorhiza heteroxylon gen. et sp. nov. are the oldest macrofossil evidence of Paullinieae. They provide direct evidence of the development of a vascular cambial variant associated with the climbing habit in Sapindaceae and provide strong evidence of the diversification of crown-group Paullinieae in the tropics by 18.5-19 million years ago.

Modifications during Early Plant Development Promote the Evolution of Nature's Most Complex Woods.

Secondary growth is the developmental process by which woody plants grow radially. The most complex presentations of secondary growth are found in lianas (woody vines) as a result of the unique demand to maintain stems that can twist without breaking. The complex woody forms in lianas arise as non-circular stem outlines, aberrant tissue configurations, and/or shifts in the relative abundance of secondary tissues. Previous studies demonstrate that abnormal activity of the vascular cambium leads to variant secondary growth; however, the developmental and evolutionary basis for this shift is still largely unknown. Here, we adopt an integrative approach, leveraging techniques from historically distinct disciplines-developmental anatomy and phylogenetic comparative methods-to elucidate the evolution of development of the complex woody forms in a large lineage of tropical lianas, Paullinia L. (Sapindaceae). We find that all forms of variant secondary growth trace back to the same modification during early stem development, which results in young plants with lobed stem outlines and a discontinuous distribution of vascular bundles. By placing development in a phylogenetic context, we further show that the lobed primary plant bauplan is the evolutionary precursor to all complex woody forms. We find evidence for three evolutionary mechanisms that generate phenotypic novelty: exaptation and co-opting of the ancestral bauplan, the quasi-independence of the interfascicular and fascicular cambia, and the inclusion of additional developmental stages to the end of the ancestral ontogeny. Our study demonstrates the utility of integrating developmental data within a phylogenetic framework to investigate the evolution of complex traits.

Phylogeny of Paullinia L. (Paullinieae: Sapindaceae), a diverse genus of lianas with dynamic fruit evolution.

Paullinia L. is a genus of c. 220 mostly Neotropical forest-dwelling lianas that display a wide diversity of fruit morphologies. Paullinia resembles other members of the Paullinieae tribe in being a climber with stipulate compound leaves and paired inflorescence tendrils. However, it is distinct in having capsular fruits with woody, coriaceous, or crustaceous pericarps. While consistent in this basic plan, the pericarps of Paullinia fruits are otherwise highly variable-in some species they are winged, whereas in others they are without wings or covered with spines. With the exception of the water-dispersed indehiscent spiny fruits of some members of Paullinia sect. Castanella, all species are dehiscent, opening their capsules while they are still attached to the branch, to reveal arillate animal-dispersed seeds. Here we present a molecular phylogeny of Paullinia derived from 11 molecular markers, including nine newly-developed single-copy nuclear markers amplified by microfluidics PCR. This is the first broadly sampled molecular phylogeny for the genus. Paullinia is supported as monophyletic and is sister to Cardiospermum L., which together are sister to Serjania Mill + Urvillea Kunth. We apply this novel phylogenetic hypothesis to test previous infrageneric classifications and to infer that unwinged fruits represent the ancestral condition, from which there were repeated evolutionary transitions and reversals. However, because the seeds of both winged and unwinged fruits are dispersed by animals, we conclude that the repeated transitions in fruit morphology may relate to visual display strategies to attract animal dispersers, and do not represent transitions to wind dispersal.

Development of single-copy nuclear intron markers for species-level phylogenetics: Case study with Paullinieae (Sapindaceae).

PREMISE OF THE STUDY: We developed a bioinformatic pipeline that leverages a publicly available genome and published transcriptomes to design primers in conserved coding sequences flanking targeted introns of single-copy nuclear loci. Paullinieae (Sapindaceae) is used to demonstrate the pipeline. METHODS AND RESULTS: Transcriptome reads phylogenetically closer to the lineage of interest are aligned to the closest genome. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms are called, generating a "pseudoreference" closer to the lineage of interest. Several filters are applied to meet the criteria of single-copy nuclear loci with introns of a desired size. Primers are designed in conserved coding sequences flanking introns. Using this pipeline, we developed nine single-copy nuclear intron markers for Paullinieae. CONCLUSIONS: This pipeline is highly flexible and can be used for any group with available genomic and transcriptomic resources. This pipeline led to the development of nine variable markers for phylogenetic study without generating sequence data de novo.