Bees diversified in the age of eudicots

Reliable estimates on the ages of the major bee clades are needed to further understand the evolutionary history of bees and their close association with flowering plants. Divergence times have been estimated for a few groups of bees, but no study has yet provided estimates for all major bee lineages. To date the origin of bees and their major clades, we first perform a phylogenetic analysis of bees including representatives from every extant family, subfamily and almost all tribes, using sequence data from seven genes. We then use this phylogeny to place 14 time calibration points based on information from the fossil record for an uncorrelated relaxed clock divergence time analysis taking into account uncertainties in phylogenetic relationships and the fossil record. We explore the effect of placing a hard upper age bound near the root of the tree and the effect of different topologies on our divergence time estimates. We estimate that crown bees originated approximately 123 Ma (million years ago) (113–132 Ma), concurrently with the origin or diversification of the eudicots, a group comprising 75 per cent of angiosperm species. All of the major bee clades are estimated to have originated during the Middle to Late Cretaceous, which is when angiosperms became the dominant group of land plants.     

Leaf evolution in Southern Hemisphere conifers tracks the angiosperm ecological radiation

The angiosperm radiation has been linked to sharp declines in gymnosperm diversity and the virtual elimination of conifers from the tropics. The conifer family Podocarpaceae stands as an exception with highest species diversity in wet equatorial forests. It has been hypothesized that efficient light harvesting by the highly flattened leaves of several podocarp genera facilitates persistence with canopy-forming angiosperms, and the angiosperm ecological radiation may have preferentially favoured the diversification of these lineages. To test these ideas, we develop a molecular phylogeny for Podocarpaceae using Bayesian-relaxed clock methods incorporating fossil time constraints. We find several independent origins of flattened foliage types, and that these lineages have diversified predominantly through the Cenozoic and therefore among canopy-forming angiosperms. The onset of sustained foliage flattening podocarp diversification is coincident with a declining diversification rate of scale/needle-leaved lineages and also with ecological and climatic transformations linked to angiosperm foliar evolution. We demonstrate that climatic range evolution is contingent on the underlying state for leaf morphology. Taken together, our findings imply that as angiosperms came to dominate most terrestrial ecosystems, competitive interactions at the foliar level have profoundly shaped podocarp geography and as a consequence, rates of lineage diversification.     

Steady diversification of derived liverworts under Tertiary climatic fluctuations

Tropical forests contain the majority of extant plant diversity and their role as a cradle and/or museum of biodiversity is an important issue in our attempts to assess the long-term consequences of global climate change for terrestrial biomes. Highly diverse groups of liverworts are an often ignored but extremely common element in rainforests, and thus their evolution may shed light on the ecological robustness of rainforest biomes to climate fluctuations. We record a remarkable constant accumulation of diversity through time for the most species-rich family of liverworts, Lejeuneaceae, inferred by divergence time estimates. The observed pattern supports the recently developed concept of a dual role of the tropics as both a museum and a cradle of biodiversity.     

海岸带沉积物中氮循环功能微生物多样性

海岸带生境类型多样,环境梯度明显,是研究微生物多样性、群落结构与功能关系及调控机制的天然实验场.沉积物是海岸带环境中营养盐再生与转化发生的重要场所,其中多种微生物类群在氮素循环过程中扮演重要角色.本文重点介绍海岸带沉积物中固氮菌、氨氧化菌、厌氧氨氧化菌、反硝化与硝酸盐铵化微生物的基于16SrRNA基因的物种多样性和基于关键酶基因nifH、amoA、narG、nirS、nirK、nosZ、nrfA、hzo、hzs等的功能多样性;总结了在海岸带特有生境(如河口、潮间带、海草藻床、红树林、盐沼、珊瑚礁、浅海等)及污染胁迫、生物扰动等条件下各功能类群的群落组成特征及时空变化规律,并提出今后需要重点关注新的培养技术和方法的开发,以进一步提高微生物的可培养性,将单细胞基因组测序与分析技术、DNA和RNA结合起来研究,以全面了解氮循环微生物多样性、参与介导硝酸盐铵化过程的微生物多样性等方面.