Format: ORAL

Jaume Pellicer1,2, Maarten Christenhusz2,3, J. Leitch2, Oriane Hidalgo1,2

1 Institut Botànic de Barcelona (IBB), CSIC-CMCNB, Passeig del Migdia s.n., 08038 Barcelona, Spain 2 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond TW9 3AE, United Kingdom 3 Deptartment of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, Perth, Australia

Research into genome size evolution in angiosperms has increased significantly, uncovering a huge diversity across different taxonomic lineages. Despite the efforts made and the vast amount of data generated ( 10,000 species), which have been carefully collated onto the plant DNA C-values database (http://data.kew.org/cvalues/), many taxonomic families are still lacking a single estimate. Certainly, such taxonomic gaps are particularly notable in angiosperms, where nuclear DNA contents are only available for about 3,000 genera out of c. 13,000 genera currently recognised, and over 10,000 species (c. 2.5% of the c. 352,000 species recognised). At the family level, this translates into estimates for 270 families out of 417 (sensu the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group IV), i.e. nearly 65% of the currently accepted diversity. With the already available data, we have been able to unveil a staggering diversity of nuclear DNA contents in angiosperms that spans up to 2400-fold. Notwithstanding, the question still remains as what is the extant diversity of genome sizes in angiosperms? And what is yet to be uncovered? In order to bring further robustness to our current understanding of angiosperm genome size diversity, we set up an initiative aimed at filling most if not all- the taxonomic caveats, starting at the family level. The unceasing production of novel genome size data, complemented with an increasingly robust understanding of the worldwide distribution of organisms, has opened unprecedented prospects for investigating the role of genome size in shaping and influencing the survival of extant biodiversity. Our goal is to produce at least one estimate per each accepted family (122 families represented so far, i.e. 94%), focusing our efforts on those lineages largely understudied, and interpret these data within an evolutionary context, investigating the existing links between the patterns and processes shaping extant plant genome diversity.