February 28th, 2014
By Gitzendanner, Matt
The Soltis Lab
Scientists and students in the Soltis Lab are currently working with a variety of technologies to investigate mechanisms of speciation, evolutionary relationships and character evolution in flowering and land plants at all taxonomic levels. Current projects include the study of higher level phylogenetic relationships and character evolution in the angiosperms, floral evolution, the genetic and genomic consequences of polyploidy, conservation genetics of rare plants, phylogeography, and biogeography. Please explore our website for more information on our research.
Rates of niche and phenotype evolution lag behind diversification in a temperate radiation
May 20th, 2019By Gitzendanner, Matt
Significance
Ancestral reconstruction across Saxifragales for PC1 of our dataset of 35 environmental variables; branches are colored in a rainbow scale from low ordinated values (red and yellow; hotter and to some extent wetter habitats, as well as the hottest arid habitats) to high ordinated values (green and blue; mostly colder and drier habitats). Black dots at nodes represent major ecological niche shifts (the upper 95th percentile of node–parent node differences). Red dots at nodes represent diversification shifts in the maximum credibility set. The inset density curves show tip rates for diversification (green), niche (orange), and phenotype (blue), all scaled from the minimum to the maximum reconstructed value. Around the edge are photographs of major representative habitats. Family codes are as follows: (a) Peridiscaceae, (b) Paeoniaceae, (c) Daphniphyllaceae, (d) Cercidiphyllaceae, (e) Altingiaceae, (f) Hamamelidaceae, (g) Iteaceae, (h) Grossulariaceae, (i) Saxifragaceae, (j) Cynomoriaceae, (k) Tetracarpaeaceae, (l) Aphanopetalaceae, (m) Penthoraceae, (n) Haloragaceae, and (o) Crassulaceae.
Alternative models of evolutionary processes suggest different associations between species diversification and trait evolution, but limited empirical evidence is available to test these models across large clades at global extents. Here we investigate the relative timing of species diversification and niche and phenotypic evolution across a global plant radiation (Saxifragales) with enormous phenotypic and habitat variation. We demonstrate strong temporal lags among rates, with increased diversification occurring first, followed by niche and phenotype. Accelerated diversification rates are coincident with mid-Miocene expansion of temperate biomes. Later increases in niche and phenotypic evolutionary rates argue against density-dependent diversification alone, indicating a major role for ecological opportunity. These results have broad implications for understanding diversification processes and the origin of present-day temperate biotas.
Origin of angiosperms and the puzzle of the Jurassic gap
May 9th, 2019By Gitzendanner, Matt
Li, H.-T., T.-S. Yi, L.-M. Gao, P.-F. Ma, T. Zhang, J.-B. Yang, M. A. Gitzendanner, P. W. Fritsch, J. Cai, Y. Luo, H. Wang, M. van der Bank, S.-D. Zhang, Q.-F. Wang, J. Wang, Z.-R. Zhang, C.-N. Fu, J. Yang, P. M. Hollingsworth, M. W. Chase, D. E. Soltis, P. S. Soltis, and D.-Z. Li. 2019. Origin of angiosperms and the puzzle of the Jurassic gap. Nature Plants 1. [View on publisher’s site | Free PDF download]Darwin review: angiosperm phylogeny and evolutionary radiations
March 29th, 2019By Gitzendanner, Matt
Soltis Pamela S., Folk Ryan A., and Soltis Douglas E. 2019. Darwin review: angiosperm phylogeny and evolutionary radiations. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 286:20190099. [View on publisher’s site]Richie Hodel awarded Florida Museum Austin Award for Research
March 29th, 2019By Gitzendanner, Matt
Former lab member Richie Hodel was awarded the Florida Museum’s Austin Award for Research! Congrats Richie!
Toward a large-scale and deep phenological stage annotation of herbarium specimens: Case studies from temperate, tropical, and equatorial floras
March 29th, 2019By Gitzendanner, Matt
Divergent gene expression levels between diploid and autotetraploid Tolmiea relative to the total transcriptome, the cell, and biomass.
February 19th, 2019By Gitzendanner, Matt
A simplified example of how spike‐in standards can be used during read normalization to enable comparisons of expression level at different biological scales between a hypothetical diploid–polyploid pair with differing cell density. The large circles represent a unit of biomass and contain a number of cells (green squares). Beneath each circle is a depiction of how the read normalizations are calculated. Under a per transcriptome normalization, the ratio of target transcripts to the total transcriptome is compared. The per biomass normalization uses the ratio of the transcript of interest to the spike‐in transcripts. The per cell normalization also uses the ratio of the transcript of interest to spike‐in transcripts, but scales the spike‐in transcript abundance by cell density, represented here by multiplying the spike‐in abundance by the number of contributing cells. Whether the transcript of interest would be found as not differentially expressed (=) or upregulated (<) in the polyploid under each normalization is indicated (downregulated not included). DE: differential expression.
Visger, C. J., G. K.-S. Wong, Y. Zhang, P. S. Soltis, and D. E. Soltis. 2019. Divergent gene expression levels between diploid and autotetraploid Tolmiea relative to the total transcriptome, the cell, and biomass. American Journal of Botany [View on publisher’s site]
A chromosomal-scale genome assembly of Tectona grandis reveals the importance of tandem gene duplication and enables discovery of genes in natural product biosynthetic pathways.
February 13th, 2019By Gitzendanner, Matt
Plastid phylogenomic insights into the evolution of Caryophyllales
February 12th, 2019By Gitzendanner, Matt
Yao, G., J.-J. Jin, H.-T. Li, J.-B. Yang, V. Shiva Mandala, M. Croley, R. Mostow, N. A. Douglas, M. W. Chase, M. J. M. Christenhusz, D. E. Soltis, P. S. Soltis, S. A. Smith, S. F. Brockington, M. J. Moore, T.-S. Yi, and D.-Z. Li. 2019. Plastid phylogenomic insights into the evolution of Caryophyllales. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2018.12.023.Nuclear genomes of two magnoliids
January 10th, 2019By Gitzendanner, Matt
Biodiversity synthesis across the green branches of the tree of life.
January 10th, 2019By Gitzendanner, Matt
Global resources can be spatially, taxonomically or temporally subset to serve focused needs, as shown. The top rows in the inset show needed data resources, and the bottom row shows synthetic products, such as regional assessments of evolutionary diversity that inform about community processes and conservation priorities.
Allen, J. M., R. A. Folk, P. S. Soltis, D. E. Soltis, and R. P. Guralnick. 2019. Biodiversity synthesis across the green branches of the tree of life. Nature Plants 5:11. [View on Publisher’s site]