RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Multiple Geographical Origins of Environmental Sex Determination enhanced the diversification of Darwin’s Favourite Orchids
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 167098
DO 10.1101/167098
A1 Oscar Alejandro Pérez-Escobar
A1 Guillaume Chomicki
A1 Fabien L. Condamine
A1 Jurriaan M. de Vos
A1 Aline C. Martins
A1 Eric C. Smidt
A1 Bente Klitgård
A1 Günter Gerlach
A1 Jochen Heinrichs
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/21/167098.abstract
AB Environmental sex determination (ESD) – a change in sexual function during an individual life span driven by environmental cues – is an exceedingly rare sexual system among angiosperms. Because ESD can directly affect reproduction success, it could influence diversification rate as compared with lineages that have alternative mating systems. Here we test this hypothesis using a solid phylogenetic framework of Neotropical Catasetinae, the angiosperm lineage richest in taxa with ESD. We assess whether gains of ESD are associated with higher diversification rates compared to lineages with alternative systems while considering additional traits known to positively affect diversification rates in orchids. We found that ESD has evolved asynchronously three times during the last ~5 Myr. Lineages with ESD have consistently higher diversification rates than related lineages with other sexual systems. Habitat fragmentation due to mega-wetlands extinction, and climate instability are suggested as the driving forces for ESD evolution.