Eliška Záveská

University of Innsbruck | UIBK · Institute of Botany

Background The centromere is one of the key regions of the eukaryotic chromosome. While maintaining its function, centromeric DNA may differ among closely related species. Here, we explored the composition and structure of the pericentromeres (a chromosomal region including a functional centromere) of Hieracium alpinum (Asteraceae), a member of one...

Genome size variation is a crucial aspect of plant evolution, influenced by a complex interplay of factors. Repetitive elements, which are fundamental components of genomic architecture, often play a role in genome expansion by selectively amplifying specific repeat motifs. This study focuses on Amomum, a genus in the ginger family (Zingiberaceae),...

Plant species with large genomes tend to be excluded from climatically more extreme environments with a shorter growing season. Species that occupy such environments are assumed to be under natural selection for more rapid growth and smaller genome size (GS). However, evidence for this is available only for temperate organisms. Here, we study the e...

Meistera muriformis (Zingiberaceae: Alpinioideae), a new species from southern Vietnam is described and illustrated. The description is accompanied by additional notes on etymology, ecology and phenology, distribution, and preliminary IUCN assessment. Notes on differences from morphologically similar congeners are provided. The new species is diagn...

Deciduous forests form the dominant natural vegetation of Europe today, but were restricted to small refugia during Pleistocene cold stages, implying an evolutionary past shaped by recurrent range contractions and expansions. Cold‐stage forest refugia were probably widespread in southern and central Europe, with the northwestern Balkan Peninsula be...

Hybridization is a widespread phenomenon in the evolution of plants and exploring its role is crucial to understanding diversification processes of many taxonomic groups. Recently, more attention is focused on the role of ancient hybridization that has repeatedly been shown as triggers of evolutionary radiation, although in some cases, it can preve...

Aim Our knowledge of Pleistocene refugia and post‐glacial recolonization routes of forest understorey plants is still very limited. The geographical ranges of these species are often rather narrow and show highly idiosyncratic, often fragmented patterns indicating either narrow and species‐specific ecological tolerances or strong dispersal limitati...

The Mediterranean Basin is renowned for its extremely rich biota and is considered as one of the 25 Global Biodiversity Hotspots, but its diversity is not homogeneously distributed. Outstanding in the number of (endemic) species are the Ligurian Alps (Italy). At the foot of the Ligurian Alps, little above the Mediterranean Sea, a disjunct occurrenc...

Deciduous forests form the dominant natural vegetation of Europe today, but were restricted to small refugia during Pleistocene cold stages, implying an evolutionary past shaped by recurrent range contractions and expansions. Cold-stage forest refugia were probably widespread in southern and central Europe, with the northwestern Balkan Peninsula be...

The ant Plagiolepis taurica Santschi, 1920 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) is a typical species of the Eurasian steppes, a large grassland dominated biome that stretches continuously from Central Asia to Eastern Europe and is represented by disjunct outposts also in Central and Western Europe. The extent of this biome has been influenced by the Pleistoce...

Background and Aims A targeted enrichment NGS approach was used to construct the phylogeny of Amomum Roxb. (Zingiberaceae). Phylogenies based on hundreds of nuclear genes, the whole plastome and the rDNA cistron were compared with an ITS-based phylogeny. Trends in genome size (GS) evolution were examined, chromosomes were counted and the geographic...

Aim Although whole-genome duplication (WGD) is an important speciation force, we still lack a consensus on the role of niche differentiation in polyploid evolution. In addition, the role of genome doubling per se vs. later divergence on polyploid niche evolution remains obscure. One reason for this might be that the intraspecific genetic structure...

The Mediterranean Basin is an important biodiversity hotspot and one of the richest areas in the world in terms of plant diversity. Its flora parallels in several aspects that of the Eurasian steppes and the adjacent Irano-Turanian floristic region. The Euphorbia nicaeensis alliance spans this immense area from the western Mediterranean to Central...

Quaternary climatic oscillations had a large impact on European biogeography. Alternation of cold and warm stages caused recurrent glaciations, massive vegetation shifts, and large-scale range alterations in many species. The Eurasian steppe biome and its grasslands are a noteworthy example; they underwent climate-driven, large-scale contractions d...

The Balkan Peninsula played an important role in the evolution of many Mediterranean plants and served as a major source for post-Pleistocene colonisation of central and northern Europe. Its complex geo-climatic history and environmental heterogeneity significantly influenced spatiotemporal diversification and resulted in intricate phylogeographic...

Aim Although whole genome duplication (WGD) is an important speciation force, we still lack a consensus on the role of niche differentiation in polyploid evolution. In addition, the role of genome doubling per se vs. later divergence on polyploid’s niche evolution remains obscure. One reason for this might be that the intraspecific genetic structur...

Knowledge of population variation across species’ ranges is a prerequisite for correctly assessing the overall variability of any group of organisms and provides an invaluable basis for unraveling evolutionary history, optimizing taxonomy and devising effective conservation strategies. Here, we examine the genus Neotinea, which represents a relativ...

Quaternary climatic oscillations had a large impact on European biogeography. Alternation of cold and warm stages caused recurrent glaciations, massive vegetation shifts and large-scale range alterations in many species. The Eurasian steppe biome and its grasslands are a noteworthy example; they underwent climate-driven, large-scale contractions du...

Glacial refugia of alpine and subnival biota have been intensively studied in the European Alps but the fate of forests and their understory species in that area remains largely unclear. In order to fill this gap, we aimed at disentangling the spatiotemporal diversification of disjunctly distributed black hellebore Helleborus niger (Ranunculaceae)....

Although the evolutionary drivers of genome size change are known, the general patterns and mechanisms of plant genome size evolution are yet to be established. Here we aim to assess the relative importance of proliferation of repetitive DNA, chromosomal variation (incl. polyploidy) and the type of endoreplication for genome size evolution of the P...

Multi-locus genetic data are pivotal in phylogenetics. Today, high-throughput sequencing (HTS) allows scientists to generate an unprecedented amount of such data from any organism. However, HTS is resource intense and may not be accessible to wide parts of the scientific community. In phylogeography, the use of HTS has concentrated on a few taxonom...

Correction to: Plant Systematics and Evolution

Some of the most burning questions in biology in recent years concern differential diversification along the tree of life and its causes. Among others, it could be triggered by the evolution of novel phenotypes accelerating diversification in lineages that bear them. In the Pleurothallidinae, the most species-rich subtribe of plants on Earth with 4...

The European steppes and their biota have been hypothesized to be either young remnants of the Pleistocene steppe belt or, alternatively, to represent relicts of long-term persisting populations; both scenarios directly bear on nature conservation priorities. Here, we evaluate the conservation value of threatened disjunct steppic grassland habitats...

The European steppes and their biota have been hypothesized to be either young remnants of the Pleistocene steppe belt or, alternatively, to represent relicts of long-term persisting populations; both scenarios directly bear on nature conservation priorities. Here, we evaluate the conservation value of threatened disjunct steppic grassland habitats...

Evolutionary histories of plants from the mid-elevation (montane) zone of European mountain ranges have only rarely been documented, standing in contrast to those of well-researched inhabitants of (sub-)alpine and foothill zones. To fill this gap, we have reconstructed the phylogeography of Arabidopsis halleri, a species preferring coniferous woodl...

Evolutionary histories of plants from the mid-elevation (montane) zone of European mountain ranges have only rarely been documented, standing in contrast to those of well-researched inhabitants of (sub-)alpine and foothill zones. To fill this gap, we have reconstructed the phylogeography of Arabidopsis halleri, a species preferring coniferous woodl...

Understanding transcontinental biogeographic patterns has been one of the main foci of the field of biogeography. While multiple explanations for transcontinental disjunctions have been proposed, little is still known about the relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic traits for the diversification dynamics of disjunct taxa. Here, we study th...

Wild relatives of Arabidopsis thaliana are moving into the spotlight of plant evolutionary biologists and molecular geneticists, but patterns of genetic diversity and phenotypic variation in natural populations are often overlooked. This gap in knowledge may in turn hamper generalizations of results from experimental studies using populations of un...

Detailed knowledge of the geographic distribution of cytotypes is a prerequisite for any experimental or molecular study of ploidy-variable plant systems. The Arabidopsis arenosa group, an intricate di-tetraploid complex from the plant model genus Arabidopsis, has remained largely neglected regarding the distribution and habitat associations of its...

Quaternary climatic oscillations profoundly impacted temperate biodiversity. For many diverse yet undersampled areas, however, the consequences of this impact are still poorly known. In Europe, particular uncertainty surrounds the role of Balkans, a major hotspot of European diversity, in postglacial recolonization of more northerly areas, and the...

The role of glacial oscillations in shaping plant diversity has been only rarely addressed in endemics of formerly glaciated areas. The Galium pusillum group represents a rare example of an ecologically diverse and ploidy-variable species complex that exhibits substantial diversity in deglaciated northern Europe. Using AFLP and plastid and nuclear...

We investigated genetic variation and evolutionary history of closely related taxa of Picris subsect. Hieracioides with major focus on the widely distributed P. hieracioides and its closely related congeners, P. hispidissima, P. japonica, P. olympica, and P. nuristanica. Accessions from 140 sample sites of the investigated Picris taxa were analyzed...

Curcuma comprises 120 species that occur throughout tropical and subtropical Asia. The taxonomy of the genus is haunted by polyploid speciation and homoploid hybridization, making it the most challenging genus in Zingibereae (Zingiberaceae). Curcuma is best known for turmeric (C. longa), but numerous species are extensively used as medicinal plants...

The relationships between genome size and the systematic and evolutionary patterns in vascular plants are equivocal, although a close relationship between genome size and evolutionary patterns has been previously reported. However, several studies have also revealed the dynamic nature of genome size evolution and its considerable ‘ups’ and ‘downs’....