Resolving phylogeny and polyploid parentage using genus-wide genome-wide sequence data from birch trees

Numerous plant genera have a history including frequent hybridisation and polyploidisation (allopolyploidisation), which means that their phylogeny is a network of reticulate evolution that cannot be accurately depicted as a bifurcating tree with a single tip per species. The genus Betula, which contains many ecologically important tree species, is a case in point. We generated genome-wide sequence reads for 27 diploid and 36 polyploid Betula species or subspecies using restriction site associated DNA (RAD) sequences. These reads were assembled into contigs with a mean length of 675 bp. We reconstructed the evolutionary relationships among diploid Betula species using both supermatrix (concatenation) and species tree methods. We identified the closest diploid relatives of the polyploids according to the relative rates at which reads from polyploids mapped to contigs from different diploid species within a concatenated reference sequence. By mapping reads from allopolyploids to their different putative diploid relatives we assembled contigs from the putative sub-genomes of allopolyploid taxa. We used these to build new phylogenies that included allopolyploid sub-genomes as separate tips. This approach yielded a highly evidenced phylogenetic hypothesis for the genus Betula, including the complex reticulate origins of the majority of its polyploid taxa. Our phylogeny divides the genus into two well supported clades, which, interestingly, differ in their seed-wing morphology. We therefore propose to split Betula into two subgenera.

Automated summary

This study utilized RAD sequences to generate genome-wide sequence reads for 27 diploid and 36 polyploid Betula species, and reconstructed the evolutionary relationships among these species using supermatrix and species tree methods. The research identified the complex reticulate origins of the majority of polyploid taxa in the genus Betula, leading to the proposal of splitting Betula into two subgenera based on differences in seed-wing morphology.