Format: ORAL

Paola de Lima Ferreira1 ngela Cano2, Benedikt Kuhnhuser3, Sidonie Bellot3, William Baker3, Wolf Eiserhardt1 the Palm Phylogeny Working Group.

1 Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark 2 Cambridge University Botanic Garden, Cambridge, United Kingdom 3 Royal Botanic Gardens, Richmond, United Kingdom

Evolutionary and ecological studies rely on phylogenies to shed light on the patterns and processes that have shaped biodiversity through space and time. However, our understanding is often fragmented due to incomplete phylogenetic sampling. Here, we are moving towards having a complete phylogenetic framework for the palm family (Arecaceae) based on target enrichment sequencing data. Bioinformatic analyses are based on a divide and conquer approach where each palm subfamily is analyzed separately in order to minimize the effects of paralogous genes. Then, subfamilies are combined to understand their relationships and to reconstruct the backbone. Our sequencing database includes all five subfamilies, all 183 genera and 2,080 species (83% of accepted species). The extensive taxonomic sampling could only be achieved due to a massive joint effort of 40 researchers of the Palm Phylogeny Working Group (PPWG). Most of the deep relationships that we recovered with these data are consistent with our understanding of palm phylogeny from earlier studies. However, the majority of species-level relationships have never been tested before and are explored for the first time in this new genomic tree. The phylogeny tree was dated using the most recent revision of fossils available for the family and used as a framework to understand its historical biogeographic patterns through space and time, diversification and biome evolution.