scholarly journals A Molecular Evaluation of the North American “Grassland” Sparrow Clade

The Auk ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 537-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Klicka ◽  
Garth M. Spellman

Abstract Because they share several morphological and ecological characters, the North American sparrow (Emberizidae) genera Ammodramus, Passerculus, and Xenospiza have historically been considered members of a well-defined “grassland” sparrow assemblage. Relationships among the 11 members of this group have been the subject of much taxonomic debate, yet no comprehensive molecular assessment of relationships has been done. We investigated these relationships using mitochondrial DNA sequence data that included complete cytochrome-b and ND2 genes. Phylogenetic reconstructions derived via parsimony, likelihood, and Bayesian methods were congruent. The grassland sparrows, as presently configured, are polyphyletic. Pooecetes gramineus, Amphispiza belli (but not A. quinquestriata and A. bilineata), Oriturus superciliosus, and all three species of Melospiza are included in a reconfigured clade, whereas the traditional forms of Ammodramus savannarum, humeralis, and aurifons are placed well outside of these. Within the clade of interest, Ammodramus remains polyphyletic, with leconteii, maritimus, nelsoni, and caudacutus forming a well-resolved clade apart from henslowii and bairdii. The latter are in another strongly supported clade that also includes Passerculus and a Xenospiza-Melozpiza sister pairing. Pooecetes, Amphispiza (belli), and Oriturus represent early lineages in this clade that today have no close living relatives. The polyphyly of the genus Ammodramus is likely the result of morphological convergence attributable to similar adaptive responses to the occupation of similar habitats. In general, the morphological and ecological factors that have defined the grassland sparrows are poor indicators of relatedness. Taxonomic revisions are suggested. Evaluación Molecular del Clado de Gorriones de Pastizales de Norte América

HortScience ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 1006B-1006
Author(s):  
Ping Lang ◽  
Fenny Dane ◽  
Thomas L. Kubisiak ◽  
Hongwen Huang

The genus Castanea (Fagaceae), which contains three sections and seven species, is widely distributed in the deciduous forests of the Northern Hemisphere. The phylogeny of Castanea was estimated using DNA sequence data from five different regions of the chloroplast genome. Sequencing results support the genus Castanea as a paraphyletic group with C. crenata, the Japanese chestnut, representing an early divergence in the genus. The three Chinese species form a strongly supported sister clade to the North American and European clade. A unique westward expansion of extant Castanea species is hypothesized with Castanea originating in eastern Asia, an initial diversification within Asia during the Eocene, followed by intercontinental dispersion and divergence between the Chinese and European/North American species during the Oligocene and a split between the European and North American species in the early Miocene. The differentiation within North America and China might have occurred in late Miocene or early Pliocence. The North America species are supported as a clade with C. pumila var. ozarkensis, the Ozark chinkapin, as the basal lineage, sister to the group comprising C. pumila var. pumila, the Allegheny chinkapin, and C. dentata, the American chestnut. Morphological evolution of one nut per bur in the genus may have occurred independently on two continents.


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 930-942
Author(s):  
Geraldine A. Allen ◽  
Luc Brouillet ◽  
John C. Semple ◽  
Heidi J. Guest ◽  
Robert Underhill

Abstract—Doellingeria and Eucephalus form the earliest-diverging clade of the North American Astereae lineage. Phylogenetic analyses of both nuclear and plastid sequence data show that the Doellingeria-Eucephalus clade consists of two main subclades that differ from current circumscriptions of the two genera. Doellingeria is the sister group to E. elegans, and the Doellingeria + E. elegans subclade in turn is sister to the subclade containing all remaining species of Eucephalus. In the plastid phylogeny, the two subclades are deeply divergent, a pattern that is consistent with an ancient hybridization event involving ancestral species of the Doellingeria-Eucephalus clade and an ancestral taxon of a related North American or South American group. Divergence of the two Doellingeria-Eucephalus subclades may have occurred in association with northward migration from South American ancestors. We combine these two genera under the older of the two names, Doellingeria, and propose 12 new combinations (10 species and two varieties) for all species of Eucephalus.


2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 580-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony R. Magee ◽  
Ben-Erik van Wyk ◽  
Patricia M. Tilney ◽  
Stephen R. Downie

Generic circumscriptions and phylogenetic relationships of the Cape genera Capnophyllum, Dasispermum, and Sonderina are explored through parsimony and Bayesian inference analyses of nrDNA ITS and cpDNA rps16 intron sequences, morphology, and combined molecular and morphological data. The relationship of these genera with the North African genera Krubera and Stoibrax is also assessed. Analyses of both molecular data sets place Capnophyllum, Dasispermum, Sonderina, and the only southern African species of Stoibrax (S. capense) within the newly recognized Lefebvrea clade of tribe Tordylieae. Capnophyllum is strongly supported as monophyletic and is distantly related to Krubera. The monotypic genus Dasispermum and Stoibrax capense are embedded within a paraphyletic Sonderina. This complex is distantly related to the North African species of Stoibrax in tribe Apieae, in which the type species, Stoibrax dichotomum, occurs. Consequently, Dasispermum is expanded to include both Sonderina and Stoibrax capense. New combinations are formalized for Dasispermum capense, D. hispidum, D. humile, and D. tenue. An undescribed species from the Tanqua Karoo in South Africa is also closely related to Capnophyllum and the Dasispermum–Sonderina complex. The genus Scaraboides is described herein to accommodate the new species, S. manningii. This monotypic genus shares the dorsally compressed fruit and involute marginal wings with Capnophyllum, but is easily distinguished by its erect branching habit, green leaves, scabrous umbels, and fruit with indistinct median and lateral ribs, additional solitary vittae in each marginal wing, and parallel, closely spaced commissural vittae. Despite the marked fruit similarities with Capnophyllum, analyses of DNA sequence data place Scaraboides closer to the Dasispermum–Sonderina complex, with which it shares the erect habit, green (nonglaucous) leaves, and scabrous umbels.


2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 387-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphne F. STONE ◽  
James W. HINDS ◽  
Frances L. ANDERSON ◽  
James C. LENDEMER

AbstractA revision of the North American members of the Leptogium saturninum group (i.e. species with long lower-surface hairs, isidia, and usually smooth upper surface) is presented based on molecular phylogenetic analyses of mtSSU and nrITS sequence data, together with an extensive morphological study. Three species supported by both molecular and morphological characteristics are recognized: L. acadiense sp. nov. (distinguished by granular saturninum-type isidia, medulla composed of irregularly arranged or perpendicular hyphae), L. cookii sp. nov. (distinguished by cylindrical saturninum-type isidia) and L. hirsutum (distinguished by hirsutum-type isidia and medulla composed of loosely intertwined hyphae). One species supported by morphological characteristics, but for which no molecular data could be generated, is also recognized: L. compactum sp. nov. (distinguished by hirsutum-type isidia and medulla composed of tightly packed hyphae). Finally, L. saturninum (distinguished by granular saturninum-type isidia and medulla composed of perpendicular and parallel hyphae) is supported by morphological characteristics but molecular data from geographically diverse populations, including those near the type locality, indicate that the morphologically defined species is paraphyletic. Leptogium burnetiae is excluded from North American based on morphological study of the type. The species are described and illustrated in detail, and are distinguished morphologically by their isidium development, morphology of mature isidia, and pattern of hyphae in the medulla in transverse sections near lobe margins. A key to the members of the L. saturninum group and related species is also presented.


2001 ◽  
Vol 79 (12) ◽  
pp. 1465-1476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Han-Gu Choi ◽  
Myung-Sook Kim ◽  
Michael D Guiry ◽  
Gary W Saunders

The aim of this study was to reassess monophyly of the genus Polysiphonia and determine the phylogenetic affinities of its component lineages among related red algae belonging to the Rhodomelaceae. Our "total evidence" approach, combining 28 anatomical characters and small-subunit ribosomal DNA sequence data for 25 ceramialean algae including 14 species of Polysiphonia sensu lato (including two species of the recently described genus Neosiphonia) and nine related Rhodomelaceae, indicates that Polysiphonia sensu lato consists of three strongly supported clades, Polysiphonia group, Neosiphonia group, and a "multipericentral" group, and a single taxon lineage consisting of Womersleyella setacea. The type species of the genus, Polysiphonia urceolata (= Polysiphonia stricta) from the north Atlantic, formed a distinct clade with Polysiphonia morrowii and Polysiphonia pacifica from the northwest and northeast Pacific, respectively. The Neosiphonia group included Neosiphonia japonica and Neosiphonia savatieri from the northwest Pacific, as originally proposed, Polysiphonia harveyi from the north Atlantic, which shares diagnostic features with this genus, and the anomalous Polysiphonia elongata and Polysiphonia virgata from the north Atlantic and South Africa, respectively. Boergeseniella and Vertebrata from the north Atlantic and Enelittosiphonia from the northwest Pacific associated solidly with the multipericentral Polysiphonia fucoides and Polysiphonia nigra from the north Atlantic. The implications for the taxonomy of Polysiphonia sensu lato and related genera within the Rhodomelaceae are discussed.Key words: Neosiphonia, nuclear small-subunit rDNA, phylogeny, Polysiphonia, Rhodomelaceae, Rhodophyta, systematics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-59
Author(s):  
C. Matt Guilliams ◽  
Kristen E. Hasenstab-Lehman ◽  
Bruce G. Baldwin

Three recent phylogenetic studies have used DNA sequence data to examine evolutionary relationships in Amsinckiinae (Boraginaceae). In each of these studies, the genus Plagiobothrys Fisch. & C. A. Mey. has been recovered as non-monophyletic. So that only monophyletic groups are recognized, two new genus names are provided here: Amsinckiopsis (I. M. Johnst.) Guilliams, Hasenstab & B. G. Baldwin and Simpsonanthus Guilliams, Hasenstab & B. G. Baldwin. The new combination P. collinus (Phil.) I. M. Johnst. var. pringlei (Greene) Guilliams & B. G. Baldwin is given for plants from Arizona that were found to be phylogenetically nested within P. collinus. The genus name Sonnea Greene is lectotypified.


Author(s):  
Anson Shupe

The modern North American anti-cult movement (hereafter ACM), a counter- movement, has been researched both conceptually and historically/organizationally. My purpose here is not to trace all the historical and sociological trivia and varieties of the ACM in North American during its thirty five-year heyday of growth, maturity, and then relative morbidity. Rather, I wish to accomplish two tasks: first, to place the understanding of counter-movements such as the modern ACM in a sociological social movement context (foreign as that may have seemed to its activists during the 1960s-90s); and second, to provide an overview of this current incarnation of a very old social movement theme in American history. Regarding the subject of counter-movements, Tahi Mottl correctly claimed thirty years ago that it was a relatively neglected one. Things are becoming slightly better today.


Botany ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 86 (9) ◽  
pp. 1039-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Downie ◽  
Deborah S. Katz-Downie ◽  
Feng-Jie Sun ◽  
Chang-Shook Lee

Intergeneric phylogenetic relationships within Apiaceae tribe Oenantheae were investigated using sequence data from the chloroplast DNA psbI–5′trnK(UUU) and nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer regions. One hundred and thirty-one accessions were examined, representing all 17 genera of the tribe and approximately one-half of its species. The cpDNA region includes four intergenic spacers and the rps16 intron and these noncoding loci were analyzed separately to assess their relative utility for resolving relationships. Separate maximum parsimony analyses of the entire psbI–5′trnK(UUU) and ITS regions, each with and without scored indels, yielded concordant trees. Phylogenies derived from maximum parsimony, Bayesian, or maximum likelihood analyses of combined chloroplast and nuclear DNA sequences for 82 accessions were highly resolved, well supported, and consistent. Among the five noncoding loci examined, the trnQ(UUG)–5′rps16 and 3′rps16–5′trnK(UUU) intergenic spacers are the most variable, with the latter contributing the greatest total number of parsimony informative characters relative to its size. The North American genera Atrema , Cynosciadium , Daucosma , Limnosciadium , Neogoezia , Oxypolis , Ptilimnium , and Trepocarpus ally with the western hemispheric and Australasian genus Lilaeopsis in a strongly supported North American Endemics clade that is a sister group to a clade composed primarily of Old World taxa ( Berula sensu lato, Cryptotaenia , Helosciadium , and Sium ). Oxypolis and Ptilimnium are not monophyletic, with the rachis-leaved members of each comprising a clade separate from their compound-leaved congeners. Dispersal-vicariance analysis suggests that the ancestors of the North American Endemics clade probably originated in Canada and the USA or in a broader ancestral area including Mexico and South America.


Antiquity ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 53 (208) ◽  
pp. 121-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marshall McKusick

Dr Marshall McKusick is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology, University of Iowa, USA. He and others have been concerned with the rise of antiquarian speculation in the United States, which is historically comparable to mound-builder theories of a century ago that gained great popular currency. Professor McKusick's book on the subject of the various speculations Atlantic voyages to prehistoric America, will be published early next year by the Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.


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