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Abstract
The Hypnales are the largest order of mosses comprising approximately 4200 species. Phylogenetic reconstruction within the group has proven to be difficult due to rapid radiation at an early stage of evolution and, consequently, relationships among clades have remained poorly resolved. We compiled data from four sequence regions, namely, nuclear ITS1–5·8S–ITS2, plastid trnL–F and rps4, and mitochondrial nad5, for 122 hypnalean species and 34 species from closely related groups. Tree topologies from both Bayesian and parsimony analyses resolve the order as monophyletic. Although inferences were made from fast-evolving genes, and despite strong phylogenetic signal in the nuclear ITS1–5·8S–ITS2 data, monophyly, as well as backbone nodes within the Hypnales, remains rather poorly supported except under Bayesian inferences. Ancestral distribution based on Bayesian dispersal-vicariance analysis supports a Gondwanan origin of the Hypnales and subsequent geographical radiation in the area of the former Laurasian supercontinent. Reconstruction of historical biogeography is congruent with mainly tropical and Gondwanan distributions in the sister groups Hypnodendrales, Ptychomniales, and Hookeriales, and with the dating for the oldest pleurocarp and hypnalean fossils. We contrast groupings in the phylogenetic tree with recent classifications and other phylogenetic inferences based on molecular data, and summarise current knowledge on the evolutionary history of, and relationships among, the Hypnales.
This research was supported by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (MEIF-CT-2005-009452) and a Marie Curie Reintegration Grant (PERG03-GA-2008-230953) within the Sixth European Community Framework Program for SH, as well as a post-doctoral researcher grant from the Academy of Finland (project no. 121373). The authors received support from two researcher exchange grants by the Academy of Finland/DAAD (SH, OK, DQ, VB, SO) and DAAD/STINT (VB, LH, SH, SO, DQ), which is warmly acknowledged. Research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG QU 153/3-1, 153/3-2; DQ) and SYNTHESYS (VB, SO), which is financed by the European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP6 ‘Structuring the European Research Area’ Programme (http://www.synthesys.info). VB and SO wish to thank Professor Christoph Neinhuis for supporting the laboratory work at the Dresden University of Technology.
Taxonomic Additions and Changes: Nil.