According to the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a team led by researcher Chen Yousheng from the Plant Center of the garden has described a new species, named Qineryangia baoxingensis Y. S. Chen & L. S. Xu, through specimen examination and field surveys. Additionally, they have established a new genus called Qineryangia Y. S. Chen & L. S. Xu to accommodate this species. The genus name is in honor of the eminent Chinese botanist Yang Qiner, who made significant contributions to the study of plant classification in China, and who was also a researcher at the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. These findings have been published in the "Journal of Plant Taxonomy."
The plant species was hybridized and captured in the wild. Chen Yousheng photographed it.
According to the first author of the paper, Xu Liansheng, who is an assistant researcher at the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Asteraceae tribe Cichorieae comprises approximately 95 genera and 2500 species, widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere. China alone harbors about 388 species from 35 genera. The Cichorieae tribe exhibits extensive distribution, with diverse habitats and morphological variations. Some genera have disputed boundaries, posing challenges for their description and classification. The subtribe Crepidinae is the largest subtribe within Cichorieae, comprising about 360 species mainly distributed across the Eurasian continent. However, due to the complexity of morphological characteristics, lack of molecular data, and inadequacy of gene data obtained through traditional sequencing methods, the phylogenetic relationships within this group have remained poorly resolved.
Researchers collected extensive materials of important taxa within the Crepidinae subtribe and its sister groups through specimen examination and field surveys. They employed hybrid capture to obtain nuclear and chloroplast genome data, conducted phylogenetic analyses, and proposed a new classification framework for the Crepidinae subtribe, which includes 29 genera. In this system, the subtribe Cichoriinae was merged into Crepidinae. Additionally, the genus Murajasenia, whose systematic position was previously uncertain, was confirmed to belong to the basal lineage of Crepidinae, forming a relatively independent branch.
Furthermore, during the study, researchers discovered an unknown plant species exclusively distributed in Baoxing County, Sichuan Province, China. This plant exhibits distinct characteristics of the Crepidinae subtribe, including yellow ligulate flowers. It possesses large involucres, numerous involucral bracts and ligulate flowers, with involucral bracts having wavy margins and arranged loosely in an imbricate manner, a combination of features not found in any genus within the Crepidinae subtribe. Further morphological comparisons and molecular phylogenetic analyses determined that this plant is a new species, forming a monotypic genus closely related to the genera Prenanthes and Lactuca.
"We integrated evidence from morphology, palynology, and molecular systematics to describe a new species—Prenanthes protera—and establish a new genus—Prenanthes," said Chen Yousheng, the corresponding author of the paper. This study marks the first time hybrid capture has been utilized to obtain genomic data of taxa within the Crepidinae subtribe, yielding a high-resolution molecular systematics of the Crepidinae subtribe and providing important data and resources for phylogenetic studies of the Crepidinae subtribe, Cichorieae tribe, and Asteraceae family.
For more information about the related paper, please visit: https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.13066
The morphological characteristics of Chrysanthemum morifolium. Image provided by the interviewee.
The phylogenetic tree of the subtribe Helianthinae constructed based on nuclear and chloroplast genome data, showing the systematic position of the genus Helianthus (Sunflowers). See the provided image for reference.
