Volume 240, Issue 5 p. 2102-2120
Full paper

Phylogenomics insights into gene evolution, rapid species diversification, and morphological innovation of the apple tribe (Maleae, Rosaceae)

Lin Zhang

Lin Zhang

College of Landscape Architecture and Art, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

Department of Biology, The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802 USA

Henan Engineering Research Center for Osmanthus Germplasm Innovation and Resource Utilization, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Diego F. Morales-Briones

Diego F. Morales-Briones

Princess Therese von Bayern chair of Systematics, Biodiversity and Evolution of Plants, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Menzinger Str. 67, Munich, 80638 Germany

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Yujie Li

Yujie Li

College of Landscape Architecture and Art, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

Henan Engineering Research Center for Osmanthus Germplasm Innovation and Resource Utilization, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

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Guojin Zhang

Guojin Zhang

Department of Biology, The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802 USA

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Taikui Zhang

Taikui Zhang

Department of Biology, The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802 USA

Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China

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Chien-Hsun Huang

Chien-Hsun Huang

Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China

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Peng Guo

Peng Guo

Henan Engineering Research Center for Osmanthus Germplasm Innovation and Resource Utilization, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

College of Life Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

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Kaiming Zhang

Kaiming Zhang

College of Landscape Architecture and Art, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

Henan Engineering Research Center for Osmanthus Germplasm Innovation and Resource Utilization, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

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Yihan Wang

Corresponding Author

Yihan Wang

Henan Engineering Research Center for Osmanthus Germplasm Innovation and Resource Utilization, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

College of Life Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

Authors for correspondence:

Hong Ma

Email:[email protected]

Fu-De Shang

Email:[email protected]

Hongwei Wang

Email:[email protected]

Yihan Wang

Email:[email protected]

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Hongwei Wang

Corresponding Author

Hongwei Wang

Henan Engineering Research Center for Osmanthus Germplasm Innovation and Resource Utilization, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

College of Plant Protection, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

Authors for correspondence:

Hong Ma

Email:[email protected]

Fu-De Shang

Email:[email protected]

Hongwei Wang

Email:[email protected]

Yihan Wang

Email:[email protected]

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Fu-De Shang

Corresponding Author

Fu-De Shang

College of Landscape Architecture and Art, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

Henan Engineering Research Center for Osmanthus Germplasm Innovation and Resource Utilization, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

College of Life Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China

Authors for correspondence:

Hong Ma

Email:[email protected]

Fu-De Shang

Email:[email protected]

Hongwei Wang

Email:[email protected]

Yihan Wang

Email:[email protected]

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Hong Ma

Corresponding Author

Hong Ma

Department of Biology, The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802 USA

Authors for correspondence:

Hong Ma

Email:[email protected]

Fu-De Shang

Email:[email protected]

Hongwei Wang

Email:[email protected]

Yihan Wang

Email:[email protected]

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First published: 03 August 2023
Citations: 2

Summary

  • Maleae is one of the most widespread tribes of Rosaceae and includes several important fruit crops and ornamental plants.
  • We used nuclear genes from 62 transcriptomes/genomes, including 26 newly generated transcriptomes, to reconstruct a well-supported phylogeny and study the evolution of fruit and leaf morphology and the possible effect of whole genome duplication (WGD).
  • Our phylogeny recovered 11 well-supported clades and supported the monophyly of most genera (except Malus, Sorbus, and Pourthiaea) with at least two sampled species. A WGD was located to the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of Maleae and dated to c. 54 million years ago (Ma) near the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, supporting Gillenieae (x = 9) being a parental lineage of Maleae (x = 17) and including duplicate regulatory genes related to the origin of the fleshy pome fruit. Whole genome duplication-derived paralogs that are retained in specific lineages but lost in others are predicted to function in development, metabolism, and other processes. An upshift of diversification and innovations of fruit and leaf morphologies occurred at the MRCA of the Malinae subtribe, coinciding with the Eocene–Oligocene transition (c. 34 Ma), following a lag from the time of the WGD event.
  • Our results provide new insights into the Maleae phylogeny, its rapid diversification, and morphological and molecular evolution.

Data availability

The RNA-seq raw datasets were uploaded to NCBI SRA database with accession number of PRJNA917232. All assembled sequence data reported in this paper are available from the figshare website (doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.23584401).