Mosses of Eastern North America

UNLABELLED Evolutionary relationships are frequently described by phylogenetic trees, but a central barrier in many fields is the difficulty of interpreting data containing conflicting phylogenetic signals. We present a metric-based method for comparing trees which extracts distinct alternative evolutionary relationships embedded in data. We demonstrate detection and resolution of phylogenetic uncertainty in a recent study of anole lizards, leading to alternate hypotheses about their evolutionary relationships. We use our approach to compare trees derived from different genes of Ebolavirus and find that the VP30 gene has a distinct phylogenetic signature composed of three alternatives that differ in the deep branching structure. KEY WORDS phylogenetics, evolution, tree metrics, genetics, sequencing.

Mapping Phylogenetic Trees to Reveal Distinct Patterns of Evolution

A number of reviews have accompanied and monitored the progress of molecular phylogenetic research on bryophytes, focusing on the publication record itself, bryophyte phylogeny and systematics in the molecular era, as well as the evolution and phylogenetic utility of markers from different genomes. However, none of the recent reviews include a detailed characterization of all molecular markers used in bryophyte phylogenetics. Here we provide an overview of the history and current state of marker utilization, including coding and non-coding sequence markers from all three genomes as well as fingerprinting approaches. The molecular architecture and evolutionary peculiarities, as well as practical aspects such as amplification and sequencing strategies, are outlined for the DNA sequence markers, with a focus on the most commonly employed regions. Their phylogenetic utility and potential for solving some of the remaining, pressing questions in bryophyte phylogeny, as well as their suitability for molecular species identification by DNA barcoding, are discussed.

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20,000 species and five key markers: The status of molecular bryophyte phylogenetics

Bryophytes (including mosses, liverworts and hornworts) are a heterogeneous group of terrestrial plants, which comprise over 24,000 species worldwide. Given the various biological activities reported from bryophytes, they have a huge commercial potential. Due to their minute size and rather small biomass in various ecosystems, bryophytes are a seldom part of ethnomedicine and rarely subject to medicinal and chemical analyses. Still, hundreds of novel natural products have been isolated from bryophytes. Bryophytes have been shown to contain numerous potentially useful natural products, including polysaccharides, lipids, rare amino acids, terpenoids, phenylpropanoids, quinones and many other specialized metabolites. Additionally, different bryophyte extracts and isolated compounds have shown antimicrobial, antiviral, cytotoxic, nematocidal, insecticidal, effects on smooth and non-striated muscles, weight loss, plant growth regulators and allelopathic activities. Bryophytes also cause allergies and contact dermatitis. All these effects highlight bryophytes as potential source for herbal remedies and production of chemicals to be used in various products.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/3E429765F05A536DCAEA2484354D81B3/S1479262116000320a.pdf/div-class-title-bryophytes-an-emerging-source-for-herbal-remedies-and-chemical-production-div.pdf

Bryophytes - an emerging source for herbal remedies and chemical production

Bryophytes: Hoard of remedies, an ethno-medicinal review

The term “ethnobryology” was introduced about 50 years ago in a paper about the bryophytes used by the Gosiute people of Utah (Flowers 1957). Although there are fewer literature reports about human uses of bryophytes than those about vascular plants, a number of references about ethnobotanically important bryophytes do exist. These instances of ethnobryological use are all the more interesting both because of their relative rarity, and for the insights they can provide about the relation between people and small plants, like bryophytes, that lie on the cusp of human perception. This paper presents a summary of traditional uses and folk classifications of bryophytes around the world. Comparisons are made about the way that bryophytes are classified in different cultures. A list of about 150 ethnobotanical species of bryophytes is given. Many of these species have reported uses in Traditional Chinese Medicine (∼27%) and by Native North Americans (∼28%). The most common use of bryophytes is for medi...

https://bioone.org/journals/The-Bryologist/volume-111/issue-2/0007-2745(2008)111[169:ETUAFC]2.0.CO;2/Ethnobryology-traditional-uses-and-folk-classification-of-bryophytes/10.1639/0007-2745(2008)111[169:ETUAFC]2.0.CO;2.pdf

Ethnobryology: traditional uses and folk classification of bryophytes

The identification and evaluation ofphylogenetic incongruence remains a difficult problem in the reconstruction of evolutionary history. In this study, molecular sequence data were used to reconstruct the phylogeny of the moss genus Plagiomnium (Mniaceae). Separate analyses of gene regions from the nuclear and chloroplast compartments revealed several cases of topological incongruence, which were subsequently evaluated and compared with the behavior of documented allopolyploids in Plagiomnium. Plagiomnium, as currently circumscribed, is paraphyletic, with the epiphytic and primarily Southeast Asian genus Orthomnion nested within Plagiomnium sect. Rostrata. Previously recognized sections of Plagiomnium are also paraphyletic. Eleven out of sixteen species with multiple representatives in the analysis were found to have phylogenetic structure below the currently recognized species level. Populations of P. cuspidatum in Southeastern U.S.A., populations resembling P. tezukae in Southwest China, and three specimens from East Asia that resemble P. maximoviczii all represent distinct evolutionary lineages that may warrant formal taxonomic recognition. Incongruence between the nuclear and chloroplast genomic compartments can be partly explained by the allopolyploid origin of P. medium and P. cuspidatum. However, examples of incongruence in the placement of P.japonicum, P. undulatum, P. venustum, and Orthomnion are probably caused by increased rates of evolution and/or lack of support for branches that include these taxa. These results emphasize the importance of distinguishing between different types of incongruence on a case-by-case basis, before attempting to make general conclusions about the evolutionary processes involved in the creation of discordant gene trees.

Paraphyly and multiple causes of phylogenetic incongruence in the moss genus Plagiomnium (Mniaceae)

Phylogenetic and environmental lability of flavonoids in a medicinal moss

Abstract. Long considered one of the best examples of a moss endemic to the Blue Ridge Escarpment of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, “Mnium carolinianum” has been reduced to synonymy with the widespread pantropical Plagiomnium rhynchophorum. It therefore joins a number of other bryophytes and ferns that represent tropical species disjunct to the moderated microenvironments provided by the deep gorges of these high-rainfall mountains. Our evidence from starch gel electrophoresis of isozymes and sequencing of both chloroplast (rps4 and rpL16) and nuclear (ITS2) DNA supports this taxonomic decision originally proposed by Timo Koponen but largely ignored in recent checklists and floras. A similar situation prevails in Hawaii, where plants previously referred to P. rostratum also proved to be P. rhynchophorum. Both of these species are allopolyploids, expressing fixed heterozygosity at diagnostic loci. Although more extensive sampling of populations and additional genetic markers are desirable, it is clear that P. rhynchophorum combines the genomes of P. maximoviczii and P. integrum, whereas P. rostratum combines the genomes of P. vesicatum and P. integrum. This conclusion is congruent with morphological evidence, which shows the allopolyploids are intermediate or combine diagnostic characters of the progenitor haploids.

The pantropical moss Plagiomnium rhynchophorum (Mniaceae) disjunct to the Southern Appalachians and Hawaii

Much attention has been focused on the moss family Mniaceae over the past 50 years, yet new discoveries continue to be made. Plagiomnium decursivum joins P. floridanum as the second new species of Plagiomnium Section Plagiomnium described in the past ten years. Careful morphological and anatomical studies, coupled with evidence from isozymes and gene sequencing, reveal that a species from Japan referred to in an earlier paper (Wyatt & Odrzykoski 1998) as “P. acutum” is actually new to science. In addition, the taxon referred to in that paper as “P. acutum-J” is in fact P. acutum, and the taxon referred to as “P. cuspidatum-F” is now named P. floridanum (Wyatt & Odrzykoski 2012). The new species, P. decursivum, is compared to its closest relative, P. acutum, and to the other four species of Section Plagiomnium. It differs in having smaller leaves with long, broad decurrencies, longer leaf cells with corner thickenings, and shorter teeth composed of a single cell. Based on isozyme data, it is concluded that allopolyploid P. cuspidatum has P. decursivum as one haploid progenitor and that P. floridanum is most likely the other. Moreover, sequencing of two regions of chloroplast DNA (rps4 and rpL16) suggests that P. floridanum may have been the maternal parent in crosses that launched the allopolyploid. The relative isolation of P. drummondii and P. japonicum within the section is apparent from both morphology and genetics.

https://bioone.org/journals/the-bryologist/volume-124/issue-2/0007-2745-124.2.151/Plagiomnium-decursivum-Mniaceae-a-new-moss-species-from-Japan-and/10.1639/0007-2745-124.2.151.pdf

Eric S. J. Harris

Papers

Ethnobryology: traditional uses and folk classification of bryophytes

Paraphyly and multiple causes of phylogenetic incongruence in the moss genus Plagiomnium (Mniaceae)

Phylogenetic and environmental lability of flavonoids in a medicinal moss

The pantropical moss Plagiomnium rhynchophorum (Mniaceae) disjunct to the Southern Appalachians and Hawaii

Plagiomnium decursivum (Mniaceae), a new moss species from Japan and China