Format: ORAL

Yam M. Pineda1, Martha Kandziora2, Mara Pinilla2, Ulrich Meve1, Sigrid Liede-Schumann1 Nicolai M. Nrk1

1 University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany. 2 Charles University, Praha, Czech Republic.

Herbaria house an immense collection of plant diversity, primarily in the form of dry-preserved specimens. We present a work protocol in Apocynaceae aiming at advancing Museomic studies in plants using the Andean-centred Orthosiinae in the Neotropical Apocynaceae as model. Exclusively using herbarium specimens (n = 205), some of which are almost 200 years old, we optimised DNA extraction protocols and applied rigorous data processing on target capture sequencing (Hyb-Seq) data using Apocynaceae-specific set with 835 probes. A well-supported species phylogeny is presented comprising approximately 78% of the known species and 50 specimens not yet formally described. Phylogenetic results confirm the generic relationships and the common origin of the species in Orthosiinae. Here, we particularly focus on the relationships inside Scyphostelma, a mainly Andean genus with many undescribed species. We measured morphological traits and tested for significant differences among inferred clades, mainly in floral characteristics. We confirm the position of recently described S. rotorum and S. solomonii, originally suggested for morphological reasons to belong to the S. harlingii clade. Our study provides further evidence on the evolutionary relationships of Orthosiinae species. Obtained species trees serve as framework to study the biogeographical history of the group and to quantify how much of the species diversity can be explained by parapatric elevational replacement, which would hint towards ecological speciation (adaptive), and how much by parapatric speciation in isolation (neutral). Our investigation illuminates patterns of evolution of montane biodiversity in the Andes using Orthosiinae as a model group.