Title Information
Title
Untangling the evolution of CAM photosynthesis within Australian Calandrinia (Montiaceae)
Name: Personal
Name Part
Hancock, Lillian Pine
Role
Role Term: Text
creator
Name: Personal
Name Part
Edwards, Erika
Role
Role Term: Text
Advisor
Name: Personal
Name Part
Kellner, James
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Weinwreich, Daniel
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Holstum, Joseph
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Corporate
Name Part
Brown University. Biology and Medicine: Ecological and Evolutionary Biology
Role
Role Term: Text
sponsor
Origin Information
Copyright Date
2018
Physical Description
Extent
16, 189 p.
digitalOrigin
born digital
Note: thesis
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2018
Genre (aat)
theses
Abstract
Most important organismal adaptations are not actually single traits, but complex trait syndromes that are evolutionarily integrated into a single emergent phenotype. In plants, crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is a complex trait that improves water use and photosynthetic efficiency under drought and temperature stress. Though CAM is an important and ubiquitous ecological adaptation, having evolved hundreds of times from the more common C3 photosynthetic pathway, we still know very little about its evolutionary assembly. In addition to fully expressed constitutive CAM, there are other well-known phenotypes that perform small amounts of CAM in an otherwise C3 background (i.e. C3-CAM intermediates). Untangling the evolution of CAM requires piecing together the genetic, biochemical, anatomical, physiological, and ecological aspects of this trait and reconstructing the evolutionary order of its assembly. In this study we characterize most of these properties associated with CAM evolution across Australian Calandrinia and species representatives from the Montiaceae and wider sub-order, Portulacineae. We use a targeted gene capture approach to sequence hundreds of loci across Australian Calandrinia (~70 species) and Montiaceae, resulting in the first and complete phylogeny for the lineage. We estimate the divergence of Australian Calandrinia from its sister lineage to ~ 30 Ma, concurrent with separation of Australia from Antarctica, and show that although the lineage radiated across inland Australia during the mid-Miocene, coincident with the initial onset of aridity, diversification slowed dramatically with the establishment of severe aridity. Through robust phylogenetic and phenotypic analyses we demonstrate that C3-CAM phenotypes are anatomically intermediates between C3 and full CAM, and that the evolution of CAM biochemistry precedes the evolution of full CAM morphological and anatomical traits. Given the number of C3-CAM reversals detected within Australia Calandrinia and the Montiaceae, we propose a model of CAM evolution that allows for lability and reversibility among C3-CAM phenotypes and C3 photosynthesis, and where C3-CAM evolves prior to the realization of full CAM. Finally, we hypothesize that once a species evolves full CAM, with the associated anatomical changes such as extreme succulence, large cells, and little intercellular airspace, reversibility back to C3 or C3-CAM photosynthesis may no longer be evolutionarily accessible.
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01062326")
Topic
Phylogeny
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01062108")
Topic
Photosynthesis
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/00848124")
Topic
Caryophyllales
Subject
Topic
Portulacineae
Subject
Topic
Succulence
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/00882281")
Topic
Crassulacean acid metabolism
Subject
Topic
C4 photosynthesis
Language
Language Term (ISO639-2B)
English
Record Information
Record Content Source (marcorg)
RPB
Record Creation Date (encoding="iso8601")
20180615
Identifier: DOI
10.26300/58sc-qr20
Access Condition: rights statement (href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/")
In Copyright
Access Condition: restriction on access
Collection is open for research.
Type of Resource (primo)
dissertations