The aim of this dissertation is to study the systematics and evolution of Euphorbiaceae vines (tribe Plukenetieae), a diverse pantropical lineage (~365 species and 18 genera) composed of three morphologically distinct subtribes, Dalechampiinae, Plukenetiinae, and Tragiinae. Through the course of my research I largely resolved the evolutionary history of Plukenetieae and made broader contributions to the study of pollen and seed evolution, pantropical biogeography, and plant diversification. In chapter two I developed the first well-sampled molecular phylogeny for Plukenetieae (154 terminals, ~93 species, 2,207 character dataset composed of ITS and psbA-trnH with indel gap-scored data), and determined baseline species group relationships of the tribe. Molecular phylogeny largely agreed with pollen morphology hypotheses and confirmed that the large genus Tragia was para- and/or polyphyletic and should be split into smaller genera. Analysis of pollen morphology revealed a trend towards aperture reduction and loss in Tragiinae, with four origins of weakly defined apertures and up to three origins of inaperturate pollen. In chapter three, I studied the seed size evolution of Plukenetia, a pantropical genus with large edible oil-rich seeds, by developing a near-exhaustive phylogeny (83 terminals, 20 of ~24 species, 5,069 bp dataset of ETS, ITS, KEA1 introns 11 and 17, TEB exon 17, matK, ndhF) and conducting ancestral state estimation and phylogenetic regression. Seed size evolution in Plukenetia was dynamic and associated with competing selective pressures of plant size, fruit type (and inferred dispersal syndrome), and seedling ecology. In chapter four I presented a revised sectional classification of Plukenetia based on phylogeny and morphological evidence, including three new taxa from South America. Chapters three and five included biogeographical investigations on Plukenetia and Plukenetieae. Analyses revealed that pantropical disjunct distributions arose one to three times in each subtribe via periodic long-distance dispersals from the Oligocene to the Pliocene, most often from South America to Africa and then Southeast Asia. Lastly, in chapter five, I developed an improved phylogeny for Plukenetieae (289 terminals, ~109 species, 5,160 bp dataset of ETS, ITS, KEA1 intron 11, TEB exon 17, matK, ndhF) to study the influence of innovative traits (twining growth form, stinging hair defences, and pseudanthial inflorescences) on diversification in the tribe. However, increased diversification was not associated with innovative traits. Instead, diversification was associated with clades that shifted into drier open habitats, aided by habitat expansion following the Late Miocene cooling period.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/38206 |
| Date | 01 October 2018 |
| Creators | Cardinal-McTeague, Warren Martin |
| Contributors | Gillespie, Lynn |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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