Format: ORAL

Ana Morales-Alonso1, Pedro Jimnez-Mejas2, Carmen Bentez-Bentez3, Andrew L. Hipp4, Sangtae Kim5, Modesto Luceo2, Jos Ignacio Mrquez-Corro6, Santiago Martn-Bravo2, Eric H. Roalson7, Tamara Villaverde1

1 Department of Biology and Geology, Physics and Inorganic Chemistry, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain. 2 Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemical Engineering, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain. 3 Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain. 4 The Morton Arboretum, Lisle IL, USA. 5 Department of Biology, Sungshin University, Seoul, Korea. 6 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, UK. 7 School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, USA.

Carex, with over 2000 species and a cosmopolitan distribution, is the second largest genus within monocots. The Global Carex Group, a research consortium established in 2013, has produced a series of publications addressing the systematics and evolution of this giant genus. As a result, a robust phylogenetic backbone at the subgeneric level and a sectional classification framework for Carex are now available. In this work, we have doubled previous genomic species sampling and obtained a well-supported Hyb-Seq phylogeny for all subgenera and represented groups, except for the subgenus Carex. For the first time, we applied geometric morphometrics to nutlet (achene) shape across all Carex, allowing the reconstruction of ancestral achene shape and its comparison among lineages. This exploration will be informative about the anatomical diversification of the genus during its global expansion. Our work, by identifying synapomorphies of the organ likeliest to be preserved in the fossil record, will also help in the identification and subsequent incorporation of previously unassigned fossil records of Carex in divergence time estimation. Furthermore, we will explore the potential correlation of achene shape and ecological requirements. Therefore, our results could potentially help to understand the possible triggers of radiation events and the factors influencing the expansion and settlement of the different Carex lineages.