Person:
Medina Bujalance, Rafael

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First Name
Rafael
Last Name
Medina Bujalance
Affiliation
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Faculty / Institute
Ciencias Biológicas
Department
Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución
Area
Botánica
Identifiers
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Search Results

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Unnoticed diversity within the disjunct moss Orthotrichum tenellum s.l. validated by morphological and molecular approaches
    (Taxon, 2013) Medina Bujalance, Rafael; Francisco Lara; Bernard Goffinet; Ricardo Garilleti; Vicente Mazimpaka
    Transoceanic disjunctions are thought to be common in species of bryophytes. While much effort focuses on identifying the causes of these disjunctions, few studies test the assumption that the disjunct populations are conspecific. The moss Orthotrichum tenellum is considered to be disjunct between western North America and the western Old World. A thorough morphological revision together with molecular analyses using four plastid (atpB-rbcL, rps4, trnG, trnL-F) and two nuclear loci (adk, ort-LFY) reveals that this putative taxon is composed of six well-supported species, each of them diagnosable by morphological and phylogenetic criteria. Furthermore, these species, which were previously treated as a single, morphologically variable taxon, belong to different lineages within the genus and are the result of separated evolutionary histories. Only two of them (O. tenellum s.str., O. norrisii) are sister species that may have resulted from speciation following a transatlantic disjunction. Today, all species are either restricted to the Old World (i.e., O. tenellum s.str., O. comosum sp. nov.) or endemic to North America (i.e., O. coulteri, O. norrisii, O cucullatum sp. nov., O. franciscanum sp. nov.). This work emphasizes the relevance of integrative approaches to solve taxonomic problems and to provide more solid bases for biodiversity assessment.
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    On the priority of Orthotrichum cylindrocarpum over O. coulteri and Lesquereux's early vindication of an autonomous American bryology
    (Taxon, 2019) Medina Bujalance, Rafael; Francisco Lara; Bernard Goffinet; Ricardo Garilleti; Vicente Mazimpaka
    In a recent revision of the Orthotrichum tenellum complex, the authors erroneously concluded that the name O. coulteri predated the supposed synonym O. cylindrocarpum. This confusion was due to incongruent publication dates reported in the literature and lack of evidence of effective publication of the latter. Here, we demonstrate that the name O. cylindrocarpum was indeed published a few months before O. coulteri based on correspondence by the authorities and dated reprints. The almost simultaneous publication of both names occurred during a period in which some early American bryologists advocated that the discovery of new species from North America should be reported by them and not by their European colleagues.
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    The complete mitochondrial genome of the moss Oxystegus tenuirostris (Hook. & Taylor) A.J.E. Sm. (Pottiaceae, Bryophyta)
    (Mitochondrial DNA. Part A, 2015) Marta Alonso; Medina Bujalance, Rafael; María Jesús Cano; Juan Antonio Jiménez; Bernard Goffinet
    The mitochondrial genome of mosses is characterized by a highly conserved structure and genic content. This is confirmed here through the assembly and annotation of the mt genome of the moss Oxystegus tenuirostris, family Pottiaceae, for which it is assembled. A phylogenetic tree is inferred from the whole genome of 16 species of mosses to validate the sequence of O. tenuirostris by confirming its shared ancestry with Syntrichia. The genome is 105 001 bp long, with a GC content of 39.2%, comprising 40 protein coding, 24 tRNA, and 3 rRNA genes. All introns reported from the mt genome of all but one peristomate moss are present, whereas no region of 50 bp or more is repeated within the genome. The genic content and order is identical to that of most mosses, highlighting that the mt genome is static not only across the phylogenetic depth but also breadth of the moss tree of life.
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    Evolutionary dynamism in bryophytes: Phylogenomic inferences confirm rapid radiation in the moss family Funariaceae
    (Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 2018) Medina Bujalance, Rafael; Matthew Johnson; Yang Liu; Nicholas Wilding; Terry A. Hedderson; Norman Wickett; Bernard Goffinet
    Rapid diversifications of plants are primarily documented and studied in angiosperms, which are perceived as evolutionarily dynamic. Recent studies have, however, revealed that bryophytes have also undergone periods of rapid radiation. The speciose family Funariaceae, including the model taxon Physcomitrella patens, is one such lineage. Here, we infer relationships among major lineages within the Entosthodon-Physcomitrium complex from virtually complete organellar exomes (i.e., 123 genes) obtained through high throughput sequencing of genomic libraries enriched in these loci via targeted locus capture. Based on these extensive exonic data we (1) reconstructed a robust backbone topology of the Funariaceae, (2) confirmed the monophyly of Funaria and the polyphyly of Entosthodon, Physcomitrella, and Physcomitrium, and (3) argue for the occurrence of a rapid radiation within the Entosthodon-Physcomitrium complex that began 28 mya and gave rise more than half of the species diversity of the family. This diversification may have been triggered by a whole genome duplication and coincides with global Eocene cooling that continued through the Oligocene and Miocene. The Funariaceae join a growing list of bryophyte lineages whose history is marked by at least one burst of diversification, and our study thereby strengthens the view that bryophytes are evolutionarily dynamic lineages and that patterns and processes characterizing the evolution of angiosperms may be universal among land plants.
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    DNA based revised geographic circumscription of species of Physcomitrella s.l. (Funariaceae): P. patens new to East Asia and P. magdalenae new to East Africa
    (Bryologist, 2015) Medina Bujalance, Rafael; Yang Liu; Wang Li-Song; Guo Shuiliang; Kristoffer Hylander; Bernard Goffinet
    Physcomitrella, as traditionally defined, accommodates certain Funariaceae with immersed and cleistocarpous capsules. Recent molecular inferences revealed that the three or four taxa typically recognized within Physcomitrella did not arise from a unique common ancestor, and hence that their morphological similarities likely resulted from convergence, while one potential taxon, P. patens subsp. californica ( = Physcomitridium readeri s.l.), is currently regarded as a polyphyletic entity, making Physcomitridium polyphyletic. Following recent discoveries that would greatly expand the known range of two taxa, we sampled populations of Physcomitrella s.l. from all main geographic regions, and sequenced the nuclear ITS regions and four plastid loci to assess the geographic circumscription of each clade. We recovered three unambiguous monophyletic entities matching the three morphotypes recognized by Fife, each with a distinct geographic range: Physcomitrella patens s.str. with a range in Europe and North America extended to East Asia (China); P. magdalenae with a range from West and Central Africa extended eastwards to Ethiopia; and Physcomitridium (Physcomitrella) readeri from western Europe and western North America to Japan and Australia, plus a doubtful occurrence in China. Although the distinction of P. californica from P. readeri remains doubtful, we reject the hypothesis that Physcomitridium is polyphyletic, arguing that this resulted from a misidentification of the sequenced voucher.