Abstract
Myrmecophytic plants utilise defensive services offered by obligate ant partners nesting in their domatia in a novel means of survival in tropical habitats. Although much is known about the ecology of myrmecophytism, there aren't enough empirical examples to demonstrate whether it substantially influences evolutionary patterns in host plant lineages. In this study, we make use of the species-rich Macaranga (Euphorbiaceae) ant-plant symbiosis distributed in the Southeast Asian Sundaland to delve into the evolutionary dynamics of myrmecophytism in host plants. We generated the most comprehensive dated phylogeny of myrmecophytic Macaranga till date using genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS). With this in hand, we traced the evolutionary history of myrmecophytism in Macaranga using parametric biogeography and ancestral state reconstruction. Diversification rate analysis methods were employed to determine if myrmecophytism enhanced diversification rates in the genus. Our results demonstrate that myrmecophytism is labile and easily lost. Ancestral state reconstruction supported a single origin of myrmecophytism in Macaranga ∼18 mya on Borneo followed by multiple losses. Diversification rate analysis methods did not yield sufficient evidence to support the hypothesis that myrmecophytism enhanced diversification rates in Macaranga; we found that topographical features on Borneo may have played a more direct role in the divergence of clades instead. Our study provides evidence that while the acquisition of domatia clearly functions as a key innovation that has enabled host plants to exploit the environment in novel ways, it may not necessarily enhance diversification rates. In fact, we hypothesise that overly specialised cases of myrmecophytism may even be an evolutionary dead end.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
Ancestral state reconstruction supported a single origin of myrmecophytism in Macaranga about 18 mya on Borneo, followed by multiple losses.
MacarangaOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Ancestral state reconstruction supported a single origin of myrmecophytism in Macaranga ∼18 mya on Borneo followed by multiple losses”
Claim · model-written summary
Myrmecophytism in Macaranga is labile and easily lost.
- Outcome
- labile and easily loste2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Ancestral state reconstruction supported a single origin of myrmecophytism in Macaranga ∼18 mya on Borneo followed by multiple losses”
e2“Our results demonstrate that myrmecophytism is labile and easily lost”
Claim · model-written summary
Diversification rate analysis did not give sufficient evidence that myrmecophytism enhanced diversification rates in Macaranga.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Ancestral state reconstruction supported a single origin of myrmecophytism in Macaranga ∼18 mya on Borneo followed by multiple losses”
e3“Diversification rate analysis methods did not yield sufficient evidence to support the hypothesis that myrmecophytism enhanced diversification rates in Macaranga”
Claim · model-written summary
Topographical features on Borneo may have played a more direct role than myrmecophytism in the divergence of Macaranga clades.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Ancestral state reconstruction supported a single origin of myrmecophytism in Macaranga ∼18 mya on Borneo followed by multiple losses”
e4“we found that topographical features on Borneo may have played a more direct role in the divergence of clades instead”
Claim · model-written summary
Acquisition of domatia is interpreted as a key innovation that enabled host plants to exploit the environment in novel ways, without necessarily enhancing diversification.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Ancestral state reconstruction supported a single origin of myrmecophytism in Macaranga ∼18 mya on Borneo followed by multiple losses”
e5“the acquisition of domatia clearly functions as a key innovation that has enabled host plants to exploit the environment in novel ways”