Oriane Hidalgo

Institut Botànic de Barcelona (IBB, CSIC-Ajuntament de Barcelona)

Angiosperms possess enormous morphological variation in plant architectures and floral forms. Previous studies in Pentapetalae and monocots have demonstrated the involvement of TCP domain CYCLOIDEA/TEOSINTE BRANCHED1 ‐like ( CYC / TB1 ) genes in the control of floral symmetry and shoot branching. However, how TCP/CYC ‐like ( CYL ) genes originated,...

Grasslands are predicted to experience a major biodiversity change by the year 2100. A better understanding of how grasslands have responded to past environmental changes will help predict the outcome of current and future environmental changes. Here, we explore the relationship between past atmospheric CO 2 and temperature fluctuations and the shi...

With c. 24 700 species (10% of all flowering plants), Asteraceae are one of the largest and most phenotypically diverse angiosperm families, with considerable economic and ecological importance. Asteraceae are distributed worldwide, from nearly polar latitudes all the way to the tropics, and occur across a diverse range of habitats from extreme des...

Asteraceae, the daisy family, are one of the most diverse families of angiosperms and are predominant in many ecosystems, including grasslands, deserts, savannas and high-elevation mountains. They are characterized by a peculiar inflorescence, the capitulum, which mimics a flower, but is actually made up of many tightly grouped florets. The capitul...

Vascular plants are exceptional among eukaryotes due to their outstanding genome size diversity which ranges ∼2,400-fold, including the largest genome so far recorded in the angiosperm Paris japonica (148.89 Gbp/1C). Despite available data showing that giant genomes are restricted across the Tree of Life, the biological limits to genome size expans...

Reconstructing evolutionary trajectories and transitions that have shaped floral diversity relies heavily on the phylogenetic framework on which traits are modelled. In this study, we focus on the angiosperm order Ranunculales, sister to all other eudicots, to unravel higher-level relationships, especially those tied to evolutionary transitions in...

The iconic, palmately compound leaves of Cannabis have attracted significant attention in the past. However, investigations into the genetic basis of leaf shape or its connections to phytochemical composition have yielded inconclusive results. This is partly due to prominent changes in leaflet number within a single plant during development, which...

Angiosperms are the cornerstone of most terrestrial ecosystems and human livelihoods1,2. A robust understanding of angiosperm evolution is required to explain their rise to ecological dominance. So far, the angiosperm tree of life has been determined primarily by means of analyses of the plastid genome3,4. Many studies have drawn on this foundation...

Poster presenting the project PHYLOPYR at the 4th Syposium of the Spanish Botanic Society (SEBOT), hosted in León, 2023

Genome size is a plant character with far-reaching implications, ranging from impacts on the financial and computing feasibility of sequencing and assembling genomes all the way to influencing the very ecology and evolution of species. The increasing recognition of the role of genome size in plant science has led to a rising demand for comprehensiv...

The iconic, palmately compound leaves of Cannabis have attracted significant attention in the past. However, investigations into the genetic basis of leaf shape or its connections to phytochemical composition have yielded inconclusive results. This is partly due to prominent changes in leaflet number between leaves of a single plant during developm...

Background and aims: Understanding diaspore morphology and how much a species invests on dispersal appendages is key for improving our knowledge of dispersal in fragmented habitats. We investigate diaspore morphological traits in high-Andean Compositae, their main abiotic and biotic drivers and test whether they play a role in species distribution...

Whole genome duplications (WGD) are frequent in many plant lineages; however, ploidy level variation is unknown in most species. The most widely used methods to estimate ploidy levels in plants are chromosome counts, which require living specimens, and flow cytometry estimates, which necessitate living or relatively recently collected samples. Newl...

Giant genomes are rare across the plant kingdom and their study has focused almostexclusively on angiosperms and gymnosperms. The scarce genetic data that are available for ferns,however, indicate differences in their genome organization and a lower dynamism compared toother plant groups. Tmesipteris is a small genus of mainly epiphytic ferns that...

Arctium L. is a genus of Asteraceae composed of 41 species (in the most recent circumscription of López-Vinyallonga et al., 2011) distributed mainly in the Northern Hemisphere, with some invasive representatives in the Southern Hemisphere (López-Vinyallonga et al., 2009). Only two Arctium species are confirmed for the Iberian flora, Arctium lappa L...

Cannabis sativa has been used for millennia in traditional medicine for ritual purposes and for the production of food and fibres, thus, providing important and versatile services to humans. The species, which currently has a worldwide distribution, strikes out for displaying a huge morphological and chemical diversity. Differences in Cannabis geno...

Ecotypes are distinct populations within a species that are adapted to specific environmental conditions. Understanding how these ecotypes become established, and how they interact when reunited, is fundamental to elucidating how ecological adaptations are maintained. This study focuses on Themeda triandra, a dominant grassland species across Asia,...

Polyploidy is a widespread phenomenon across angiosperms, and one of the main drivers of diversification. Whilst it frequently involves hybridisation, autopolyploidy is also an important feature of plant evolution. Minority cytotypes are frequently overlooked due to their lower frequency in populations, but the development of techniques such as flo...

The genus Urospermum is distributed in the Mediterranean region and Macaronesia, and has been introduced to other extra-Mediterranean regions. Although the two species constituting the genus, U. dalechampii and U. picroides, are frequently found together, hybrids have so far only been reported once, from Morocco. However, we found certain individua...

Grasslands are predicted to experience a major biodiversity change by the year 2100 in part due to recent and projected increases in atmospheric CO 2 concentration. A better understanding of how grasslands have responded to past environmental changes will help predict the outcome of current and future environmental changes. Here, we explore the rel...

Based on results from previous studies, populations of the Iberian endemic Centaurea podospermifolia north of the Ebro River are considered genetically pure, while those southward are introgressed, with genetic input from C. cephalariifolia. This phenomenon is particularly relevant, especially given both the endangered and protected status for the...

PREMISE: Phylogenetic studies in the Compositae are challenging due to the sheer size of the family and the challenges they pose for molecular tools, ranging from the genomic impact of polyploid events to their very conserved plastid genomes. The search for better molecular tools for phylogenetic studies led to the development of the family-specifi...

El tamaño del genoma de 18 especies del género Carduncellus, dos especies de los géneros relacionados, Phonus y el género monotípico Femeniasia (F. balearica) ha sido medido por primera vez mediante citometría de flujo. Los niveles de ploidía se asignaron utilizando datos de tamaño del genoma junto con los recuentos de cromosomas previamente report...

Aquest capítol posa en relleu el lloc preponderant de les plantes a les nostres vides i explora el vincle privilegiat que la botànica manté amb l'art, des d'obres inspirades en plantes i dibuixos botànics, fins als resultats de la investigació científica.

Traduction française de la version acceptée du chapitre de livre : Hidalgo O, Hidalgo E, Rocadembosch M, Vallès J. 2021. La botànica: entre art i ciència. Redondo M, Figueras E (eds.). HerbArt, confluències entre art i ciencia. Publicacions i Edicions UB. 226-243. ISBN: 978-84-9168-695-8

While polyploidy (whole genome multiplication) is generally considered rare in extant gymnosperms (with the exception of Ephedra, Ephedraceae), the occurrence of sporadic polyploid individuals belonging to various genera in the conifer family Cupressaceae has been reported in the literature. In addition, recent studies have revealed that polyploidy...

Geographical isolation facilitates the emergence of distinct phenotypes within a single species, but reproductive barriers or selection is needed to maintain the polymorphism after secondary contact. Here, we explore the processes that maintain intraspecific variation of C4 photosynthesis, a complex trait that results from the combined action of mu...

Background and aims: Extant plant groups with a long fossil history are key elements in understanding vascular plant evolution. Horsetails (Equisetum, Equisetaceae) have a nearly continuous fossil record dating back to the Carboniferous, but their phylogenetic and biogeographic patterns are still poorly understood. We use here the most extensive p...

Studies suggesting that medicinal plants are not chosen at random are becoming more common. The goal of this work is to shed light on the role of botanical families in ethnobotany, depicting in a molecular phylogenetic frame the relationships between families and medicinal uses of vascular plants in several Catalan-speaking territories. The simple...

Insights into genome size dynamics and its evolutionary impact remain limited by the lack of data for many plant groups. One of these is the genus Iris, of which only 53 out of c. 260 species have available genome sizes. In this study, we estimated the C-values for 41 species and subspecies of Iris mainly from the Eastern Mediterranean region. We c...

Asexual reproduction has often been regarded as an evolutionary dead end, but asexual lineages (most notably those that are apomictic) are present in several angiosperm families and often comprise a large number of taxa, both widespread and endemic. Investigating correlations between genetic, environmental and taxonomic factors and the incidence of...

C4 photosynthesis evolved multiple times independently in angiosperms, but most origins are relatively old so that the early events linked to photo- synthetic diversification are blurred. The grass Alloteropsis semialata is an exception, as this species encompasses C4 and non-C4 populations. Using phylogenomics and population genomics, we infer the...

Asexual reproduction has often been regarded as an evolutionary dead end, but asexual lineages (most notably those that are apomictic) are present in several angiosperm families and often comprise a large number of taxa, both widespread and endemic. Investigating correlations between genetic, environmental and taxonomic factors and the incidence of...

C 4 photosynthesis evolved multiple times independently in angiosperms, but most origins are relatively old so that the early events linked to photosynthetic diversification are blurred. The grass Alloteropsis semialata is an exception, as this single species encompasses C 4 and non-C 4 populations. Using phylogenomics and population genomics, we i...

While polyploidization is recognized as a major evolutionary driver for ferns and angiosperms, little is known about its impact in gymnosperms, where polyploidy is much less frequent. We explore Ephedra to evaluate (i) the extent of genome size diversity in the genus and the influence polyploidy has had on the evolution of nuclear DNA contents, and...

Ecosystems are at increasing risk from the global pollination crisis. Gaining better knowledge about pollinators and their interactions with plants is an urgent need. However, conventional methods of manually recording pollinator activity in the field can be time- and cost-consuming in terms of labour. Field-deployable video recording systems have...

Background and aims: Changes in the amount of repetitive DNA (dispersed and tandem repeats) are considered the main contributors to genome size variation across plant species in the absence of polyploidy. However, the study of repeatome dynamism in groups showing contrasting genomic features and complex evolutionary histories is needed to find out...

Whole genome duplication (WGD) events are common in many plant lineages, but the ploidy status and possible occurrence of intraspecific ploidy variation are unknown for most species. Standard methods for ploidy determination are chromosome counting and flow cytometry approaches. While flow cytometry approaches typically use fresh tissue, an increas...

Recent research suggests that the frequency of polyploidy may have been underestimated in gymnosperms. One notable example is in the conifer genus Juniperus, where there are already a few reports of polyploids although data are still missing for most species. In this study, we evaluated the extent of polyploidy in Juniperus by conducting the first...

The flora of the southwestern Australian biodiversity hotspot is rich in endemic species, many of which remain to be discovered or properly described; estimates of species diversity and levels of endemism should take into account the possible occurrence of cryptic species. Here we explore taxonomic diversity in a Western Australian lineage belongin...

Background: Satellite DNA is a rapidly diverging, largely repetitive DNA component of many eukaryotic genomes. Here we analyse the evolutionary dynamics of a satellite DNA repeat in the genomes of a group of Asian subtropical lady slipper orchids (Paphiopedilum subgenus Parvisepalum and representative species in the other subgenera/sections across...

Genome size is a biodiversity trait that shows staggering diversity across eukaryotes, varying over 64,000-fold. Of all major taxonomic groups, land plants stand out due to their staggering genome size diversity, ranging ca. 2400-fold. As our understanding of the implications and significance of this remarkable genome size diversity in land plants...

Ophrys is amongst the best known orchid genera and is an established system for the study of pollinatormediated floral evolution. Two species, Ophrys fusca s.l. and Ophrys dyris (= O. omegaifera subsp. dyris) belonging to Ophrys section Pseudophrys are the focus of this study. In the context of an integrative study of morphological and genetic dive...

In this study we showed that constitutive heterochromatin, GC-rich DNA and rDNA are implicated in chromosomal rearrangements during the basic chromosome number changing (dysploidy) in Reichardia genus. This small Mediterranean genus comprises 8–10 species and presents three basic chromosome numbers (x = 9, 8 and 7). To assess genome evolution and d...

At 50-fold the size of the human genome (3 Gb), the staggeringly huge genome of 147.3 Gb recently discovered in the fern Tmesipteris obliqua is comparable in size to those of the other plant and animal record-holders (i.e., Paris japonica, a flowering plant with a genome size of 148.8 Gb, and Protopterus aethiopicus, a lungfish with a genome of 130...

This study focuses on tribe Gilliesieae (Amaryllidaceae, Allioideae), which stand out because of their karyotype diversity, constituting a textbook example of Robertsonian translocations (RTs), in which chromosomes fuse or break at the centromere. Polyploidy (i.e. whole genome duplication, WGD) is also common in the tribe, hence making Gilliesieae...

The genus Cheirolophus constitutes one of the most striking cases of species radiation in Macaronesia, where it diversified into a lineage of ca. 20 endemic species at a rate that is amongst the fastest reported for oceanic islands. Whilst the cytogenetic dynamics of many of the Macaronesian Cheirolophus species have been comparatively well studied...

We report the discovery of the largest fern genome in Tmesipteris obliqua (1C = 150.61 pg), a species belonging to the whisk-fern family, Psilotaceae. Its genome size estimated by flow cytometry is comparable with the largest genome so far reported for any eukaryote, in the monocot Paris japonica (Melanthiaceae; 1C = 152.23 pg). The addition of thi...

Physiological novelties are often studied at macro-evolutionary scales such that their microevolutionary origins remain poorly understood. Here, we test the hypothesis that key components of a complex trait can evolve in isolation and later be combined by gene flow. We use C4 photosynthesis as a study system, a derived physiology that increases pla...

Physiological novelties are often studied at macro-evolutionary scales such that their micro-evolutionary origins remain poorly understood. Here, we test the hypothesis that key components of a complex trait can evolve in isolation and later be combined by gene flow. We use C4 photosynthesis as a study system, a derived physiology that increases pl...

Genome size varies enormously across the eukaryotic tree of life (c. 64,000-fold), with the largest reported nuclear genomes found in vertebrates (e.g. salamanders, lungfish) and angiosperms (e.g. mistletoe, fritillaries). Yet despite this huge diversity, most genomes are considerably smaller than the largest reported (c. 150 Gb), with the mean siz...

The common stinging nettle, Urtica dioica L. sensu lato, is an invertebrate "superhost", its clonal patches maintaining large populations of insects and molluscs. It is extremely widespread in Europe and highly variable, and two ploidy levels (diploid and tetraploid) are known. However, geographical patterns in cytotype variation require further st...

Despite being an important target of conservation concern and horticultural interest, Lebanese irises yet have a confusing taxonomic history and species’ delimitation is often considered problematic, more especially among royal irises (Iris section Oncocyclus). Indeed, these irises of exceptionally large and spectacular flowers have radiated across...

Morphometric data concerning the karyotype of Iris taxa (DOCX)

Accepted names of studied irises and their synonyms according to The Plant List, 2013 (DOCX)

Metaphase plates and karyotypes of selected Iris taxa stained with acetoorcein (TIF)

The genome evolution of ferns has been considered to be relatively static compared with angiosperms. In this study, we analyse genome size data and chromosome numbers in a phylogenetic framework to explore three hypotheses: the correlation of genome size and chromosome number, the origin of modern ferns from ancestors with high chromosome numbers,...

Genome size was assessed by flow cytometry in 55 populations of 53 taxa with different kinds of relationship with freshwater environments (25 populations of aquatic plants, 24 of wetland plants and six occurring both in aquatic and wetland habitats). Nuclear DNA content is provided for the first time for one family, five genera, 28 species, four su...

The genome is structurally and functionally influenced by ecological factors during adaptive processes. Several natural factors can cause this, and here we present the effects of different growth conditions on the genome size. Genome size assessments were carried out by flow cytometry for a set of 19 taxa for each of three growing conditions: (i) w...

Progress in understanding genome evolution has recovered not only evidence for differences in genome dynamics between the major lineages of land plants but also putative links between genome dynamics, evolvability and the assembly of species diversity (Leitch & Leitch, 2012, 2013). A new, inspiring fossil discovery now provides us with a unique ins...

The Asteraceae family has been broadly studied, but the values of genome size of only 3.5% of their species are known. To expand these data, we carried out a flow cytometric study of nuclear DNA content in a wide range of taxa of this family, filling gaps in some less studied groups. In addition, some chromosome counts have been performed (46 taxa,...

Most Calligonum species are desert plants, characteristic of the Saharan bioclimatic region. All species karyologically analyzed until present have the basic chromosome number x = 9 and comprise diploids, triploids and tetraploids. The Tunisian flora comprises diploid Calligonum arich and C. azel, of restricted distribution, and the tetraploid C. c...

The radiation of the genus Cheirolophus (Asteraceae) in Macaronesia constitutes a spectacular case of rapid diversification on oceanic islands. Twenty species - nine of them included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species - have been described to date inhabiting the Madeiran and Canarian archipelagos. A previous phylogenetic study revealed that...

This study contributes the first genome size data for wild populations of Cynara cardunculus, the presumed progenitor of artichoke and cultivated cardoon. C-values estimated by flow cytometry are 2C = 1.98–2.14(3.03) pg for wild cardoon (10 populations), 2C = 2.10–2.11 pg for cultivated cardoon (two accessions) and 2C = 2.05 pg for artichoke (one a...

Artemisia L. comprises ca. 20 annual species out of ca. 500, which are distributed mainly across the Old World grades, accounting for multiple independent acquisitions of annual habit throughout the evolutionary history of the genus. This makes Artemisia an interesting subject for the study of plant life cycle evolution in a phylogenetic context an...

Aims Habitats on ultramafic substrate present a hostile environment for plant development. We aimed to determine whether any particular range of genome size is favoured in such habitats. Methods Genome sizes of natural serpentinophyte populations were estimated using propidium iodide cytometry and compared with published data by phylogeny paired t...

Two plant genome size databases have been recently updated and/or extended: the Plant DNA C-values database (http://data.kew.org/cvalues), and GSAD, the Genome Size in Asteraceae database (http://www.asteraceaegenomesize.com). While the first provides information on nuclear DNA contents across land plants and some algal groups, the second is focuse...

Gene duplication and loss provide raw material for evolutionary change within organismal lineages as functional diversification of gene copies provide a mechanism for phenotypic variation. Here we focus on the APETALA1/FRUITFULL MADS-box gene lineage evolution. AP1/FUL genes are angiosperm-specific and have undergone several duplications. By far th...

The nuclear DNA content data available in “A genome size database in the Asteraceae” (GSAD: www.asteraceaegenomesize.com) have been analyzed, together with other parameters (i.e. ecological, karyological, cytogenetic), in order to establish hypotheses on the systematic, phylogenetic and evolutionary aspects of genome size in one of the largest angi...