Divergent genome sizes reflect the infrafamilial subdivision of the neotropical woody Marcgraviaceae

作者:Schneider Julio V*; Paule Juraj; Gitai Jailson; Dressler Stefan; Silva Gusmao Cassia Lima; Benko Iseppon Ana Maria
来源:Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, 177(1): 1-14.
DOI:10.1111/boj.12226

摘要

Neotropical Marcgraviaceae comprise about seven genera and 130 species of lianas and shrubs. They predominantly occur in lowland or montane rainforests and are characterized by a variety of pollination systems. Early classifications subdivided Marcgraviaceae into subfamilies Marcgravioideae and Noranteoideae, a concept supported by molecular data. Using flow cytometry and chromosome numbers, we investigated the role of genome size and polyploidization in the evolution of Marcgraviaceae and how genome sizes are distributed between the proposed infrafamilial groups. To do this we determined genome sizes and chromosome counts for six genera and 22 species for the first time. Our study supports the subfamilial classification of the family, revealing contrasting genome sizes in Noranteoideae (2C=5.5-21.5pg) and Marcgravioideae (2C=2.3-6.2pg). Polyploidy is considered to be the main source of genome size variation as in each subfamily the higher nuclear DNA amounts were associated with higher ploidy. In addition, genome size changes independent of polyploidy were also observed in some genera, suggesting an additional role for changes in repetitive DNA abundance in the evolution of Marcgraviaceae. A high chromosome base number (x=18; 2n=36 to approximate to 70) points to an undetected lower diploid level or to palaeopolyploidy. Marcgraviaceae show a remarkable (nine-fold) variation in genome size, and several Noranteoideae have genome sizes among the highest reported for tropical woody angiosperms worldwide.