From Plant Press, Vol. 25, No. 4, October 2022.
Paul Peterson and Robert Soreng organized and published (with help from Konstantin Romaschenko) a complete issue of the Journal of Systematics and Evolution [60(3): 473-712; 2022 https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12776] investigating the biogeography and phylogenetics within the grasses. Using the fossil record to aid in dating their phylogenetic trees and combining molecular sequence studies of DNA, they reconstructed ancestral states to infer the origin of major clades; i.e., subfamilies, tribes, supersubtribes, subtribes, and selected genera in the grasses. For this special issue, Peterson and Soreng invited a broadly trained group of 35 scientists to collaborate and present their most recent advances culminating in 10 publications.
Four of the manuscripts in the issue include new dated biogeographical analyses (Gallaher et al., 2022; Peterson et al., 2022b; Soreng et al., 2022a; Zhou et al., 2022); three comprise new phylogenetic analyses with novelties (Da Silva et al., 2022; Peterson et al., 2022a, 2022c), one is an ecological study investigating functional traits in a clade of savanna/wetland grasses (Arthan et al., 2022), one looked at the current distribution of the grasses over the Australian continent to determine migration directionality (Bryceson & Morgan, 2022), and one is an updated classification of the family primarily based on molecular phylogenetic studies (Soreng et al., 2022b).
The Poaceae began to diversify in the early–late Cretaceous (crown age of 98.54 Ma) on West Gondwana before the complete split between Africa and South America, and Africa clearly served as the center of origin for much of the early diversification of the lineages within the family (Gallaher et al., 2022). The plastid analysis included 700 taxa. In addition, Gallaher et al. (2022) includes an extensive review of the extant diversity and distribution of species, molecular and morphological evidence supporting the current classification scheme, and a biogeographical history of most lineages.
Soreng et al. (2022a) found that the ancestral area of the PPAM clade of tribe Poeae, including ca 870 species in 43 genera (42 in the DNA analysis) in 12 subtribes (Alopecurinae, Avenulinae, Beckmanniinae, Brizochloinae, Cinninae, Coleanthinae, Dupontiinae, Hookerochloinae, Miliinae, Phleinae, and Poinae, Ventenatinae), was in the high mountains of southwestern Asia (including the Caucasus), originating in the early Miocene (crown mean of 21.81 mya).
Muhlenbergia Schreb. (183 species), of the C4 subfamily Chloridoideae, apparently originated 9.3 mya in the Sierra Madre (Occidental and Oriental) in Mexico before splitting into six lineages, of which one (M. subg. Muhlenbergia) via long distance dispersal, colonized Central Asia 1.6–1 mya (Peterson et al., 2022b).
The tribe Bambuseae subtribe Melocanninae (nine genera) originated in the East Himalaya to northern Myanmar in the early Miocene (crown mean of 19.68 mya), and three routes were revealed in forming its present biogeographic pattern: in situ diversification on the Asian mainland, dispersing southwest to Sri Lanka and to the Western Ghats in South India, and spreading southeast to Malesia and Oceania via the Indo‐China Peninsula (Zhou et al., 2022).
Peterson et al. (2022a), in a molecular study of nine Eleusininae genera (Chloridoideae), found Coelachyrum Hochst. & Nees polyphyletic and Schoenefeldia Kunth to be paraphyletic, subsequently describing a new genus, Schoenefeldiella P.M. Peterson with a single species and transferring Apochiton burttii C.E. Hubb. to Coelachyrum.
In another molecular study of tribe Poeae, this of supersubtribe Agrostidodinae, Peterson et al. (2022c) investigated Calamagrostis Adans. (Agrostidinae), hypothesizing the phylogenetic and biogeographical history of seven major species groups and proposing a new genus, Condilorachia P.M. Peterson, Romasch. & Soreng, while subsuming Dichelachne Endl. and more Calamagrostis into Pentapogon R.Br. (Echinopogoninae) and further narrowing Calamagrostis (including Deyeuxia s.s.) to 130 species.
Articles in the special issue of the Journal of Systematics and Evolution [60(3): 473-712; 2022 https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12776]:
Arthan, W., V. Morales‐Fierro, M.S. Vorontsova, E.A. Kellogg, J. Mitchley, and C.E.R. Lehmann. 2022. Heteropogon‐Themeda grasses evolve to occupy either tropical grassland or wetland biomes. J. Syst. Evol. 60: 653-674.
Bryceson, S.R. and J.W. Morgan. 2022. The Australasian grass flora in a global context. J. Syst. Evol. 60: 675-690.
Da Silva, L.N., J.M. Saarela, L. Essi, and T.T. de Souza‐Chies. 2022. [2021]. A comprehensive species sampling sheds light on the molecular phylogenetics of Calothecinae (Poaceae, Pooideae, Poeae): Evidence for a new subtribe and multiple genera within the Chascolytrum clade. J. Syst. Evol. 60: 691-712.
Gallaher, T.J., P.M. Peterson, R.J. Soreng, F.O. Zuloaga, D.Z. Li, L.G. Clark, C.D. Tyrrell, C.A.D. Welker, E.A. Kellogg, and J.K. Teisher. 2022. Grasses through space and time: An overview of the biogeographical and macroevolutionary history of Poaceae. J. Syst. Evol. 60: 522-569.
Peterson, P.M., K. Romaschenko, Y. Herrera Arrieta, and M.S. Vorontsova. 2022a. [2021]. Phylogeny, classification, and biogeography of Afrotrichloris, Apochiton, Coelachyrum, Dinebra, Eleusine, Leptochloa, Schoenefeldia, and a new genus, Schoenefeldiella (Poaceae: Chloridoideae: Cynodonteae: Eleusininae). J. Syst. Evol. 60: 630-639.
Peterson, P.M., C. Roquet, K. Romaschenko, Y. Herrera Arrieta, and A. Susanna. 2022b. [2021]. A biogeographical analysis of Muhlenbergia (Poaceae: Chloridoideae: Cynodonteae: Muhlenbergiinae). J. Syst. Evol. 60: 621-629.
Peterson, P.M. and R.J. Soreng. 2022. The biogeography of grasses (Poaceae). J. Syst. Evol. 60: 473-475.
Peterson, P.M., R.J. Soreng, K. Romaschenko, P. Barberá, A. Quintanar, C. Aedo, and J.M. Saarela. 2022c. Phylogeny and biogeography of Calamagrostis (Poaceae: Pooideae: Poeae: Agrostidinae), description of a new genus, Condilorachia (Calothecinae), and expansion of Greeneochloa and Pentapogon (Echinopogoninae). J. Syst. Evol. 60: 570-590.
Soreng, R.J., L.J. Gillespie, E.A. Boudko, and E. Cabi. 2022a. Biogeography, timing, and life‐history traits in the PPAM clade: Coleanthinae (syn. Puccinelliinae), Poinae, Alopecurinae superclade, Miliinae, and Avenulinae and Phleinae (Poaceae, Pooideae, Poeae). J. Syst. Evol. 60: 591-620.
Soreng, R.J., P.M. Peterson, F.O. Zuloaga, K. Romaschenko, L.G. Clark, J.K. Teisher, L.J. Gillespie, P. Barberá, C.A.D. Welker, E.A. Kellogg, D.Z. Li, and G. Davidse. 2022b. A worldwide phylogenetic classification of the Poaceae (Gramineae) III: An update. J. Syst. Evol. 60: 476-521.
Zhou, M.Y., J.X. Liu, P.F. Ma, J.B. Yang, and D.Z. Li. 2022. Plastid phylogenomics shed light on intergeneric relationships and spatiotemporal evolutionary history of Melocanninae (Poaceae: Bambusoideae). J. Syst. Evol. 60: 640-652.
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