Molecular phylogeny and morphology of Elatostema s.l. (Urticaceae): Implications for inter- and infrageneric classifications.

Elatostema s.s. (Urticaceae) comprises approximately 500 species of herbs and subshrubs distributed in tropical and subtropical Asia, Australasia, and Africa. The delimitation of Elatostema s.s. and the closely related genera Elatostematoides, Pellionia, and Procris has long been problematic because of the large number of taxa and presumed homoplasy among diagnostic morphological characters. In the present study, we refer to these four genera together as Elatostema s.l. To evaluate the circumscription of Elatostema s.l. and its generic and subgeneric classification, we conducted phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequence data from the internal transcribed spacer of the nuclear genome (nrITS) and two markers from the plastid genome (psbA-trnH and psbM-trnD) for 126 taxa, representing 88 species of Elatostema s.s., four of Elatostematoides, nine of Pellionia, and five of Procris. Ten selected morphological characters were investigated using ancestral state reconstructions. Our results show that Elatostema s.l. can be divided into three well-supported and morphologically distinct genera: Procris, Elatostematoides, and Elatostema sensu auct. The results of our molecular phylogeny suggest four strongly supported clades within this newly defined Elatostema s.a.: core Elatostema, Pellionia, Weddellia, and an as yet undescribed clade African Elatostema. Homoplasy among the morphological characters used in this study makes it impossible to circumscribe genera using synapomorphies, but combined suites of characters do enable the morphological diagnosis of Elatostema s.a., Elatostematoides, and Procris.

• Publication year

  2019

• Venue

  Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution

• Publication date

  2019-03-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.ympev.2018.11.016PMID 30503949
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Urticaceae

  2018cited by this paper
• Ancestral State Reconstruction Reveals Rampant Homoplasy of Diagnostic Morphological Characters in Urticaceae, Conflicting with Current Classification Schemes

  2015cited by this paper
• A new hybrid from Taiwan, Elatostema × hybrida (Urticaceae), is the first confirmed natural hybrid for Urticaceae

  2014cited by this paper
• Molecular phylogeny of the nettle family (Urticaceae) inferred from multiple loci of three genomes and extensive generic sampling.

  2013cited by this paper
• phytools: an R package for phylogenetic comparative biology (and other things)

  2012cited by this paper
• Precursor to flora account of Procris (Urticaceae) in Peninsular Malaysia

  2011cited by this paper
• Additions to the Flora of China: seven new species of Elatostema (Urticaceae) from the karst landscapes of Guangxi and Yunnan

  2011cited by this paper
• Morphology of the bracts of Elatostema(Urticaceae) and the evolutionary trends in them

  2010cited by this paper
• usefulness of morphological characters for infrageneric classification of Elatostema (Urticaceae)

  2009cited by this paper
• AWTY (are we there yet?): a system for graphical exploration of MCMC convergence in Bayesian phylogenetics

  2008cited by this paper
• A rapid bootstrap algorithm for the RAxML Web servers.

  2008cited by this paper
• Infra-familial phylogeny of Urticaceae, using chloroplast sequence data

  2008cited by this paper
• The tortoise and the hare II: relative utility of 21 noncoding chloroplast DNA sequences for phylogenetic analysis.

  2005cited by this paper
• Use of DNA barcodes to identify flowering plants.

  2005cited by this paper
• MUSCLE: multiple sequence alignment with high accuracy and high throughput.

  2004cited by this paper
• PAUP* [Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (and Other Methods)]

  2004cited by this paper
• MacClade 4: analysis of phy-logeny and character evolution

  2003cited by this paper
• Phylogeny of the Gyalectales and Ostropales (Ascomycota, Fungi): among and within order relationships based on nuclear ribosomal RNA small and large subunits.

  2002cited by this paper
• The evolution of wind pollination in angiosperms

  2002cited by this paper
• MRBAYES: Bayesian inference of phylogenetic trees

  2001cited by this paper
• INDEPENDENT CONTRASTS SUCCEED WHERE ANCESTOR RECONSTRUCTION FAILS IN A KNOWN BACTERIOPHAGE PHYLOGENY

  2000cited by this paper
• Multiple Comparisons of Log-Likelihoods with Applications to Phylogenetic Inference

  1999cited by this paper
• Reconstructing ancestral character states: a critical reappraisal.

  1998cited by this paper
• MODELTEST: testing the model of DNA substitution

  1998cited by this paper
• Primary Homology Assessment, Characters and Character States

  1997cited by this paper
• DISCORDANCE BETWEEN NUCLEAR AND CHLOROPLAST PHYLOGENIES IN THE HEUCHERA GROUP (SAXIFRAGACEAE)

  1995cited by this paper
• Notes on Urticaceae of Taiwan

  1995cited by this paper
• A revision of Elatostema (Urticaceae) of Taiwan

  1995cited by this paper
• A MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF ARCEUTHOBIUM (VISCACEAE) BASED ON NUCLEAR RIBOSOMAL DNA INTERNAL TRANSCRIBED SPACER SEQUENCES

  1994cited by this paper
• Evaluation of the maximum likelihood estimate of the evolutionary tree topologies from DNA sequence data, and the branching order in hominoidea

  1989cited by this paper
• CLASSIFICATIO SPECIERUM SINICARUM ELATOSTEMATIS (URTICACEAE)

  1980cited by this paper
• CLASSIFICATIO SPEICIERUM SINENSIUM PELLIONAE (URTICACEAE)

  1980cited by this paper

• A New Dihydrophenanthrene from Elatostema tenuicaudatum with cytotoxic activity against Cancer Cell Lines

  2026cites this paper
• A robust phylogenomic framework supports a revised intrafamilial classification of Urticaceae

  2025cites this paper
• Urticaceae542 as a novel probe set combining universal and lineage-specific loci for phylogenomics of Urticaceae

  2025cites this paper
• Loss of Medicinal Plants due to Shifting Cultivation (Jhum) in Kiphire District, Nagaland, India

  2025cites this paper
• De Novo Plastome Assembly and Comparative Genomics of Elatostema lineolatum var. major: Insights into Urticaceae Orthologs, Phylogeny, and Comparative Analysis of 242 Plastomes

  2025cites this paper
• Heteroploidy hybridization and apomixis facilitate the origin of a new Elatostema species: Insights from evidence of phylogenomics, flow cytometry, cytology and morphology

  2025cites this paper
• Comparative plastome analyses and phylogenetic insights of Elatostema

  2025influential citation
• Biogeographic patterns and evolutionary history of Elatostema (Urticaceae)

  2025influential citation
• Chloroplast DNA region based phylogenetic relationships within genus Abutilon Mill.

  2025cites this paper
• An integrative approach clarifies species delimitation and biogeographic history of Debregeasia (Urticaceae)

  2024cites this paper
• New dihydrophenanthrenes from Elatostema tenuicaudatum

  2024cites this paper
• An updated classification for the hyper-diverse genus Corydalis (Papaveraceae: Fumarioideae) based on phylogenomic and morphological evidence.

  2023cites this paper
• An integrative approach to species delimitation sinks three Chinese limestone karst Elatostema (Urticaceae) species

  2023cites this paper
• Three new species of Elatostema (Urticaceae) from Thailand

  2022cites this paper
• The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Elatostema stewardii Merr. (Urticaceae)

  2022cites this paper
• A revised delimitation of the species‐rich genus Pilea (Urticaceae) supports the resurrection of Achudemia and a new infrageneric classification

  2022cites this paper
• Complete chloroplast genome sequence of Procris crenata C.B.Rob (Urticaceae)

  2021cites this paper
• Elatostema qinzhouense (Urticaceae), a new species from limestone karst in Guangxi, China

  2021cites this paper
• Elatostema chinense, a new name for Elatostema longipedunculatum (W.T.Wang) Y.H.Tseng & A.K.Monro (Urticaceae)

  2021cites this paper
• Phylogeny of the species-rich Pilea Lindl. (Urticaceae) supports its revised delimitation and infrageneric classification, including the resurrection of Achudemia Blume

  2020cites this paper
• Combination of Sanger and target-enrichment markers supports revised generic delimitation in the problematic 'Urera clade' of the nettle family (Urticaceae).

  2020cites this paper
• Morphological and DNA analyses suggest the reinstatement of four synonymized Cecropia species

  2020cites this paper
• Checklist to the Elatostema (Urticaceae) of Vietnam including 19 new records, ten new combinations, two new names and four new synonyms

  2019cites this paper
• The rediscovery and delimitation of Elatostemasetulosum W.T.Wang (Urticaceae)

  2019cites this paper
• Elatostema muluense (Urticaceae), a new species from the extraordinary caves of Gunung Mulu National Park, Malaysia

  2018cites this paper