RT Journal Article
T1 Unnoticed diversity within the disjunct moss Orthotrichum tenellum s.l. validated by morphological and molecular approaches
A1 Medina Bujalance, Rafael
A1 Lara, Francisco
A1 Goffinet, Bernard
A1 Garilleti, Ricardo
A1 Mazimpaka, Vicente
AB 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.
PB Wiley
SN 0040-0262
YR 2013
FD 2013
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/95401
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/95401
LA eng
NO Medina, Rafael, et al. «Unnoticed Diversity within the Disjunct Moss Orthotrichum Tenellum s.l. Validated by Morphological and Molecular Approaches». TAXON, vol. 62, n.o 6, diciembre de 2013, pp. 1133-52. https://doi.org/10.12705/626.15.
NO The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation gave financial support to the study through grants CGL2007-61389, CGL2010-15693  and  CGL2011-28857/BOS.  The  National  Science  Foundation  funded this research through grants EF-0531557 and DEB-0919284.
NO National Science Foundation
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 14 jun 2025