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• Premise of the study: Portulacaceae is a family with a remarkable diversity in photosynthetic pathways. This lineage not only has species with different C4 biochemistry (NADP-ME and NAD-ME types) and C3-C4 intermediacy, but also displays different leaf anatomical configurations. Here we addressed the evolutionary history of leaf anatomy and photosynthetic pathways in Portulacaceae.• Methods: Photosynthetic pathways were assessed based on leaf anatomy and carbon isotope ratios. Information on the NADP-ME and NAD-ME C4 variants was obtained from the literature. The evolutionary relationships and trait evolution were estimated under a Bayesian framework, and divergence times were calibrated using the ages obtained in a previous study.• Key results: C4 photosynthesis is the main pathway in Portulacaceae. One clade (Cryptopetala), however, includes species that have non-Kranz anatomy and C3 type isotope values, two of which are C3-C4 intermediates. The ancestral leaf anatomy for the family is uncertain. The analysis showed one origin of the C4 pathway, which was lost in the Cryptopetala clade. Nevertheless, when a second analysis was performed taking into account the limited number of species with NAD-ME and NADP-ME data, a secondary gain of the C4 pathway from a C3-C4 intermediate was inferred.• Conclusions: The C4 pathway evolved ca. 23 Myr in the Portulacaceae. The number of times that the pathway evolved in the family is uncertain. The diversity of leaf anatomical types and C4 biochemical variants suggest multiple independent origins of C4 photosynthesis. Evidence for a switch from C4 to C3-C4 intermediacy supports the hypothesis that intermediates represent a distinct successful strategy.

Premise of the study: Polyploids are often hypothesized to have distinct and broader niches than their diploid progenitors. Differences in geographic distributions between diploid and polyploids are frequently used to infer niche differentiation and increased breadth, but they are seldom used to test these hypotheses explicitly. Methods: Niche overlap and breadth were compared for diploids, tetraploids, and hexaploids of three taxa in the Claytonia perfoliata complex (C. parviflora, C. perfoliata, and C. rubra) with the use of species distribution models. Resampling and randomization approaches were used to test hypotheses of niche differentiation, breadth, and conservatism. Key results: Niche differentiation was detected between polyploid and diploid cytotypes assigned to the same taxon (e.g., C. parviflora 2x vs. 4x) but not between hexaploids and tetraploids within a taxon (e.g., C. parviflora 4x vs. 6x). Individual hexaploid cytotypes had broader ecological niches than individual diploid cytotypes. However, as a group the three hexaploid taxa did not exceed the combined niche breadth of the three diploids, suggesting that polyploidy does not result in transgressive niche breadth for this group. Niche overlap was lowest among diploids and was highest among the three hexaploid cytotypes, consistent with introgression associated with polyploidy resulting in greater ecological similarity. Although cytotypes possessed nonidentical niches, after accounting for environmental differences among ranges, cytotypes were more similar than expected, suggesting niche conservatism and similar responses to environmental characteristics. Conclusions: These results suggest that polyploids occupy distinct and broader niches relative to diploids but that cytotypes also share fundamentally similar responses to environmental variation across ploidy levels.

Portulaca oleracea L., belonging to the Portulacaceae family, is commonly known as purslane in English and Ma-Chi-Xian in Chinese. It is a warm-climate, herbaceous succulent annual plant with a cosmopolitan distribution. It is eaten extensively as a potherb and added in soups and salads around the Mediterranean and tropical Asian countries and has been used as a folk medicine in many countries. Diverse compounds have been isolated from Portulaca oleracea, such as flavonoids, alkaloids, polysaccharides, fatty acids, terpenoids, sterols, proteins vitamins and minerals. Portulaca oleracea possesses a wide spectrum of pharmacological properties such as neuroprotective, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiulcerogenic, and anticancer activities. However, few molecular mechanisms of action are known. This review provides a summary of phytochemistry and pharmacological effects of this plant.

Australian Calandrinia has radiated across the Australian continent during the last 30 Ma, and today inhabits most Australian ecosystems. Given its biogeographic range and reports of facultative Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) photosynthesis in multiple species, we hypothesized (1) that CAM would be widespread across Australian Calandrinia and that species, especially those that live in arid regions, would engage in strong CAM, and (2) that Australian Calandrinia would be an important lineage for informing on the CAM evolutionary trajectory. We cultivated 22 Australian Calandrinia species for a drought experiment. Using physiological measurements and δ 13C values we characterized photosynthetic mode across these species, mapped the resulting character states onto a phylogeny, and characterized the climatic envelopes of species in their native ranges. Most species primarily utilize C3 photosynthesis, with CAM operating secondarily, often upregulated following drought. Several phylogenetically nested species are C3, indicating evolutionary losses of CAM. No strong CAM was detected in any of the species. Results highlight the limitations of δ 13C surveys in detecting C3+CAM phenotypes, and the evolutionary lability of C3+CAM phenotypes. We propose a model of CAM evolution that allows for lability and reversibility among C3+CAM phenotypes and C3 and suggest that an annual life-cycle may preclude the evolution of strong CAM.

Using historic data sets, we quantified the degree to which global change over 120 years disrupted plant-pollinator interactions in a temperate forest understory community in Illinois, USA. We found degradation of interaction network structure and function and extirpation of 50% of bee species. Network changes can be attributed to shifts in forb and bee phenologies resulting in temporal mismatches, nonrandom species extinctions, and loss of spatial co-occurrences between extant species in modified landscapes. Quantity and quality of pollination services have declined through time. The historic network showed flexibility in response to disturbance; however, our data suggest that networks will be less resilient to future changes.

Premise of the Study Species formation is an intuitive endpoint of reproductive isolation, but circumscribing taxa that arise during speciation can be difficult because of gene flow, morphological continuity, hybridization or polyploidization, and low sequence variation among newly diverged lineages. Nonetheless, species complexes are ubiquitous, and their classification is essential for understanding how diversity influences ecosystem function. Methods We used modern sequencing technology to identify lineages of perennial Claytonia L. and assessed correspondence between genetic lineages and morphological/ecological variation. Subsets of 18 taxa from 63 populations were used for (a) lineage discovery using network and coalescent analyses, (b) leaf shape analyses using elliptical Fourier analysis and ordination, and (c) ecological analyses (soil chemistry, climate) using ANOVA and ordination. Key Results Samples mainly aggregated into groups representing each of the previously recognized species in each of the genetic data sets. Compared to the double‐digest restriction‐site‐associated DNA sequencing data set, genome skimming data provided more resolution and further opportunity to probe into patterns of nuclear and chloroplast genome diversity. Morphological and ecological associations are significantly different (albeit intergrading) among the taxa investigated. A new species, Claytonia crawfordii, is described based on morphological data presented here. Conclusions Genetic data presented in this study provide some of the first insights into phylogenetic relationships among recently diverged perennial Claytonia and are suggestive of past hybridization among caudicose and tuberous species. Given prior difficulties in understanding species boundaries among newly diverged plant lineages, this case study demonstrates the revolutionary breakthrough for systematics research that high throughput sequencing represents.

The Portulacaceae is one of the few terrestrial plant families known to have both C sub(4) and Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) species. There may be multiple origins of the evolution of CAM within the Portulacaceae but the only clear evidence of C sub(4) photosynthesis is found in members of the genus PORTULACA: In the Portulaca, CAM succulent tissue is overlaid with the C sub(4) tissue in a unique fashion where both pathways are operating simultaneously. Earlier reports have shown that the clade containing the genera Anacampseros and Grahamia may also contain C sub(4) photosynthetic species similar to the Portulaca, which would indicate multiple origins of C sub(4) photosynthesis within the family. The aim of the present study was to ascertain the true photosynthetic nature of these genera. An initial survey of the carbon isotope composition of the Anacampseros ranged from -12.6ppt to -24.0ppt, indicating very little CAM activity in some species, with other values close to the C sub(4) range. Anacampseros (=Grahamia) australiana which had been previously identified as a C sub(4) species had a carbon isotope composition value of -24.0ppt, which is more indicative of a C sub(3) species with a slight contribution of CAM activity. Other Anacampseros species with C sub(4)-like values have been shown to be CAM plants. The initial isotope analysis of the Grahamia species gave values in the range of -27.1ppt to -23.6ppt, placing the Grahamia species well towards the C sub(3) photosynthetic range. Further physiological studies indicated increased night-time CO sub(2) uptake with imposition of water stress, associated with a large diurnal acid fluctuation and a marked increased phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase activity. This showed that the Grahamia species are actually facultative CAM plants despite their C sub(3)-like carbon isotope values. The results indicate that the Grahamia and Anacampseros species do not utilize the C sub(4) photosynthetic pathway. This is the first to identify that the Grahamia species are facultative CAM plants where CAM can be induced by water stress. This work supports earlier physiological work that indicates that this clade containing Anacampseros and Grahamia species comprises predominantly facultative CAM plants. This report suggests there may be only one clade which contains C sub(4) photosynthetic members with CAM-like characteristics.

Hybrid enrichment is an increasingly popular approach for obtaining hundreds of loci for phylogenetic analysis across many taxa quickly and cheaply. The genes targeted for sequencing are typically single-copy loci, which facilitate a more straightforward sequence assembly and homology assignment process. However, this approach limits the inclusion of most genes of functional interest, which often belong to multi-gene families. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of including large gene families in hybrid enrichment protocols for phylogeny reconstruction and subsequent analyses of molecular evolution, using a new set of bait sequences designed for the “portullugo” (Caryophyllales), a moderately sized lineage of flowering plants (∼2200 species) that includes the cacti and harbors many evolutionary transitions to C4 and CAM photosynthesis. Including multi-gene families allowed us to simultaneously infer a robust phylogeny and construct a dense sampling of sequences for a major enzyme of C4 and CAM photosynthesis, which revealed the accumulation of adaptive amino acid substitutions associated with C4 and CAM origins in particular paralogs. Our final set of matrices for phylogenetic analyses included 75–218 loci across 74 taxa, with ∼50% matrix completeness across data sets. Phylogenetic resolution was greatly improved across the tree, at both shallow and deep levels. Concatenation and coalescent-based approaches both resolve the sister lineage of the cacti with strong support: Anacampserotaceae + Portulacaceae, two lineages of mostly diminutive succulent herbs of warm, arid regions. In spite of this congruence, BUCKy concordance analyses demonstrated strong and conflicting signals across gene trees. Our results add to the growing number of examples illustrating the complexity of phylogenetic signals in genomic-scale data.

The present study was carried out to enlist the medicinal plants used by the local inhabitants of developing countries such as India, and the district of Kupwara of the Kashmir Himalaya has been targeted. Our research is one of the first study focusing on the statistical evaluation of the cross-cultural analysis between three different communities i.e., Dard, Kashmiri and Gujjar, of the study area. Sampling was carried out in eight villages in 2017 to 2020, and data were collected from 102 informants based on walking transects, to collect plant specimens, and semi-structured interviews. The medical usages of all collected taxa were grouped into 15 disease categories and 81 biomedical ailments. In this study, we documented around 107 plant taxa belonging to 52 families from the local inhabitants of the Kashmir Himalaya, which regulate the livelihood of the people and support cultural ecosystem services. Asteraceae, Rosaceae, Lamiaceae, Malvaceae, Ranunculaceae, Poaceae, Solanaceae, Polygonaceae, Plantaginaceae and Brassicaceae are the top most dominant families. Herbaceous groups of plants were more common than trees and shrubs, and 71.96% of herb taxa were employed as medicine. Liliaceae, Caprifoliaceae and Portulacaceae (FUV = 0.24 each) have the highest family use value (FUV). The most prominent family was Asteraceae (seven genera, nine taxa), followed by Rosaceae and Lamiaceae (six genera, six taxa each). Persicaria Mill., Rheum L., Aconitum L. and Artemisia L. were prominent genera. Valeriana jatamansi Jones ex Roxb. (47UR), Fritillaria cirrhosa D. Don (45UR), Arisaema jacquemontii Blume (37UR), Asparagus racemosus Willd. (36UR) and Rumex acetosa L. (35UR) were the most important plant taxa with reference to use-reports. The ethnomedicinal applications of Aesculus indica Wall. ex Cambess., Solanum pseudocapsicum L., Ranunculus hirtellus Royle and Cormus domestica (L.) Spach plant taxa are reported here for the first time from the Himalayan Kashmiri people. We recommend further research on ethnopharmacological application of these newly recorded ethnobotanical plants. The medical usage of the plant was limited to different parts of the plant. In terms of the usage percentage, whole plant (26.17%), leaves (24.30%) and roots (19.63%) were found to have the highest utilization. The powder form (40.19%) was the most frequently employed method of drug/medicine preparation, followed by the utilization of extracted juice and/or other extracts (22.43%). The ICF values range from 0.85 to 1.00. Their use to remedy parasitic problems (PAR) and insect bites (IB) (ICF = 1.0 each) had the maximum consensus mentioned by the informants, although the number of taxa employed under this category was very limited. The different plant taxa used for the treatment of the gastrointestinal problems (GAS) was the most prominent disease category (262 URs, 16.19%, 25 taxa, ICF = 0.90). About 65% of the plant taxa studied is indigenous to the Asia or Himalayan regions, and around 35% is found to be exotic in nature. A strong positive correlation was found between age, gender, educational qualification and medicinal plant knowledge. No significant association was between people of different communities interviewed in terms of medical knowledge of the plants, p = 0.347 (>0.05) and χ2 = 2.120. No significant difference was found between the number of species documented concerning gender as p = 0.347 (>0.05) and χ2 =0.885. This study provides the comprehensive status of ethnomedicinal knowledge among three different communities of the study area. This study provided an impetus in discovering the baseline primary data for molecules which would help in drug discovery and management of various diseases, apart from conserving the genepool of plants in the investigated area.

Abstract The presence of weeds in areas of agricultural activities is a hinderance to the development of these activities. It is important to take advantage of the vast open spaces suitable for agriculture and provide food security for humans, and also it is an important indicator for determining the feasibility of growing crops, benefiting from yield and determining the percentage of loss, clearing fields through agricultural practices, that protect crops from weed attack and agricultural practice method must be followed that will reduce weed presence. This study was conducted during the years 2018 to 2020 to evaluate Portulacaceae of Flora in the Taif area in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at different altitudes (Area 1 =1700 m, Area 2 =1500 m, Area 3 =1500 m, Area 4 =500 m ِ Area 5 = 2200 m, and Area 6 = 2200 m). The results show that there were 2,816 individuals of Portulaca oleracea weed, with the highest density found in A 1, followed by A 2, while in A 5 and A 6, no weeds were recorded. The highest density of weeds were in the Pomegranate fields, followed by Grape fields. The lowest density was found in A man field. The results of this study will help to take the necessary measures to combat weeds and its management in areas of agricultural activity, while more studies are needed to survey the ecology of weeds of Taif in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Resumo A presença de plantas daninhas em áreas de atividades agrícolas é um entrave ao desenvolvimento dessas atividades. É importante aproveitar os vastos espaços abertos adequados para a agricultura e dar segurança alimentar para o homem. Também é um indicador importante para determinar a viabilidade de cultivo de lavouras, beneficiando-se da produtividade e determinando o percentual de perda, desmatando campos agrícolas, práticas que protegem as lavouras do ataque de ervas daninhas, e métodos de práticas agrícolas devem ser seguidos para reduzir a presença de ervas daninhas. Este estudo foi realizado durante os anos de 2018 a 2020 para avaliar Portulacaceae de flora na área de Taif, no Reino da Arábia Saudita, em diferentes altitudes (Área 1 = 1.700 m, Área 2 = 1.500 m, Área 3 = 1.500 m, Área 4 = 500 m, Área 5 = 2.200 m, e Área 6 = 2.200 m). Os resultados mostram que houve 2.816 indivíduos de planta daninha Portulaca oleracea, com a maior densidade encontrada em A 1, seguida de A 2, enquanto em A 5 e A 6, nas plantas daninhas foram registrados. A maior densidade de ervas daninhas estava nos campos de romã, seguido pelos campos de uva. A densidade mais baixa foi encontrada no campo A man. Os resultados deste estudo ajudarão a tomar as medidas necessárias para combater as ervas daninhas e seu manejo em áreas de atividade agrícola, enquanto mais estudos são necessários para levantar a ecologia das ervas daninhas de Taif na Arábia Saudita.