Neo‐ and Paleopolyploidy contribute to the species diversity of Asplenium—the most species‐rich genus of ferns

• DOI: 10.1111/jse.12271
• Publication Date: 2017-07-03T09:26:34Z
• Authors: Harald Schneider; Hong‐Mei Liu; Yan‐Fen Chang; Daniel Ohlsen; Leon R. Perrie; Lara Shepherd; Michael Kessler; Dirk N. Karger; Sabine Hennequin; Jeannine Marquardt; Stephen Russell; Stephen Ansell; Ngan Thi Lu; Peris Kamau; Josmaily Lóriga; Ledis Regalado; Jochen Heinrichs; Atsushi Ebihara; Alan R. Smith; Mary Gibby
• Keywords: Polyploid; Reticulate evolution; Character evolution

Abstract Polyploidy is widely considered as a major process in the evolution of plants but accumulation polyploid species diversity still controversial. Some recent studies proposed increased extinction risk neopolyploids compared with their diploid ancestors. The high proportion ferns expected to be formed mainly by neopolyploids, whereas paleopolyploid are predicted clustered clades founded whole genome duplications. Here, we test this prediction exploring polyploidy derived fern family Aspleniaceae. has global distribution and shows highest frequency taxa among all ferns. To hypothesis, obtained comprehensive phylogeny using chloroplast DNA sequences 883 specimens representing 292 species. All published chromosome counts were mapped onto phylogenetic framework order explore polyploids. We recovered evidence for several duplications history Phylogenetic relationships polyploids exceeding tetraploid level suggest that Asplenium may have replaced ancestors main evolutionary players some family.