Format: ORAL

Grass Phylogeny Working Group III (Arthan W., Baker W.J., Barrett M.D., Barrett R.L., Bennetzen J., Besnard G., Bianconi M.E., Birch J.L., Cataln P., Christin P.-A., Clark L.G., Columbus J.T., Crayn D.M., Davidse G., Dunning L., Duvall M.R., Fisher A.E., Fjellheim S., Forest F., Gillespie L.J., Hackel J., Haevermans T., Hodkinson T.R., Huang C.-H., Huang W., Humphreys A., Jobson R.W., Kellogg E.A.E., Larridon I., Li D.-Z., Liu J.-X., Ma H., Macfarlane T.D., Maurin O., McKain M., McLay T.G.B., Moreno-Aguilar M.F., Murphy D.J., Peterson P., Saarela J.M., Simpson L., Snow N.W., Soreng R.J., Thompson E.J., Traiperm P., Verboom G.T., Vorontsova M.S., Walsh N.G., Washburn J.D., Watcharamongkol T., Waycott M., Welker C.A.D., Xanthos M., Zhang L., Zizka A., Zuntini A.R.)

multiple institutions

Grasses (Poaceae) have over 11,800 species and are central for human livelihoods and terrestrial ecosystems. Knowing their relationships and evolutionary history is key to comparative research and crop breeding. We inferred a comprehensive nuclear species tree of grasses by combining new and published sequences, including paralogs, for 331 genes from genome, transcriptome, target enrichment and shotgun data. Our 1,153-tip tree covers 78% of grass genera and all but two small tribes. We compared it to a 910-tip plastome tree. The nuclear phylogeny matches that of the plastome at most deep nodes, with only a few instances of incongruence. Gene treespecies tree reconciliation suggests that reticulation events occurred repeatedly in the history of grasses. We provide a robust framework for completing the grass tree of life to support research on grass evolution, including modes of reticulation, and genetic diversity for sustainable agriculture.