Climate Change during Cretaceous/Paleogene as a Driving Force for the Evolutionary Radiation of Physical Dormancy in Fabaceae

Abstract

Physical dormancy (PY) due to a water-impermeable seed/fruit coat is one of the characteristic features of many species of Fabaceae; however, the timing and context of the evolution of this trait are poorly understood. In this investigation, fossil and molecular data are used to constrain the timing of the evolution of PY. The phylogenetic reconstruction programs GB-to-TNT and BEAUTi/BEAST are used to create chloroplast gene-based (rbcL and matK) phylogenies of taxa with well-represented fossil records. PY and non-dormancy are mapped to the terminals of the phylogeny, and ancestral states are reconstructed using parsimony. The initial evolution of PY in Fabaceae is reconstructed to have occurred sometime in the interval between divergence from Polygalaceae (late Campanian) to the diversification of crown-group Fabaceae (late Paleocene) when Fabaceae is known to have undergone multiple whole genome duplication (WGD) events across the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary. As in Nelumbo, another taxon with PY, Fabaceae may have developed PY in association with climatic change and WGD across the K/Pg boundary. The evolution of PY in association with WGD at the K/Pg boundary is an intriguing hypothesis that requires further investigation.