ID: 613 / 61

Category: Symposia

Track: Pending

Proposed Symposium Title: SAPINDALES: UNDERSTANDING ANGIOSPERM EVOLUTION BY INTEGRATION ACROSS DATA, SPACE AND TIME

Abstract: Sapindales is a species-rich order of angiosperms that contains economically important fruit and timber species and genera, such as citrus, mango, lychee, mahogany and maple. While most family circumscriptions are clear, relationships among families are controversial and many relationships at lower taxonomic rank are still poorly known. In recent years, studies have shed new light on the evolution of Sapindales lineages, mostly due to the increase of molecular data (e.g., generated by Next-Generation Sequencing), but also due to new morphological, phytochemical and karyological data. As part of Kew Gardens’ PAFTOL project (Plant and Fungal Trees of Life), an international team of Sapindales experts generated a dataset of unmatched taxon sampling at the genus level, providing a new phylogenetic framework for Sapindales. Building on this framework, studies using RADseq, whole plastome sequencing, transcriptomics, and sequence capture have facilitated new insights into the rapid and heterogeneous evolution of Sapindales families, the role of genome duplication in the evolution of lineages, and the evolution of anthropogenically important morphological and phytochemical traits. This symposium is a platform for international researchers from across disciplines to present new findings about phylogenetic relationships, evolution of characters (e.g., morphology, karyology, genome size) or biogeographical patterns in Sapindales taxa.

Speaker 1: Alexandra Muellner-Riehl (confirmed) Department of Molecular Evolution and Plant Systematics & Herbarium (LZ), Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany muellner-riehl@uni-leipzig.de “Meliaceae (mahogany family): model group for a better understanding of tropical angiosperm evolution?”

Speaker 2: Susan Pell (confirmed) United States Botanic Garden, 100 Maryland Avenue SW Washington, DC 20001, USA Susan.Pell@aoc.gov “Evolution of the cashew family (Anacardiaceae): morphological trends”

Speaker 3: José Rubens Pirani (confirmed) Departamento de Botânica, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão 277, 05508-900 - São Paulo, SP, Brasil pirani@usp.br Title pending (Prof. Pirani will talk about the evolution of morphological characters in Rutaceae)

Topics (Up to three): Biogeography / Phylogeography

Topic 2: Phylogenetics and Phylogenomics

Topic 3: Systematics

Justification: Sapindales is a species-rich order with a worldwide distribution. Initiated back in 2007 at the Botany & Plant Biology Joint Congress in Chicago, the Sapindales Phylogeny Group (SPG) is an active assembly of botanists working on Sapindales taxa around the globe. Various large datasets mainly based on DNA sequencing have been generated in the past years. The high number of ecologically and economically important species makes this symposium interesting for specialists as well as a general audience. We hope to encourage other botanists of all career stages to get engaged in doing joint research on Sapindales.