Hang Sun

Hang Sun
Kunming Institute of Botany · Key Lab for Plant Diversity and Biogeography, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Ph D

About

551
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Publications

Publications (551)
Article
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Many alpine ecosystems are undergoing vegetation degradation because of global change, which is affecting ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. The ecological consequences of alpine pioneer community degradation have been less studied than glacial retreat or meadow degradation in alpine ecosystems. We document the comprehensive responses of micro...
Article
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Background Endemic plants are key to understanding the evolutionary history and enhancing biodiversity within their unique regions, while also offering significant economic potential. The East Asian endemic genus Corchoropsis Siebold & Zucc., classified within the subfamily Dombeyoideae of Malvaceae s.l., comprises three species. Results This stud...
Article
This study aims to clarify the long‐standing confusion between Ceropegia paohsingensis and C. driophila and to propose the reclassification of C. paohsingensis as a heterotypic synonym of C. driophila . Additionally, we reconsider the types for C. driophila and present a detailed description of the species.
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Dasiphora fruticosa (Rosaceae), commonly known as shrubby cinquefoil, is a flowering shrub of high ornamental value yet underutilized in East Asian landscapes. Given its broad elevational distribution range, D. fruticosa serves as an ideal model for studying genetic adaptations and speciation along elevation gradients. Here, we present a high-quali...
Article
Understanding the maintenance and shift in reproductive strategies is a fundamental question in evolutionary research. Although many efforts have been made to compare different reproductive strategies, the association between reproductive strategies and lineage divergence is largely unknown. To explore the impact of different reproductive strategie...
Poster
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Background: Color is a critical visual signal in plant-animal interactions, including pollination and seed dispersal. It is generally believed that plant colors evolve under selection pressure from animal interactors. Red, in particular, is associated with several well-known phenomena: Why are so many bird-pollinated flowers red? Why are red fruits...
Article
The Nepetoideae, a subfamily of Lamiaceae (mint family), is rich in aromatic plants, many of which are sought after for their use as flavors and fragrances or for their medicinal properties. Here, we present genome assemblies for two species in Nepetiodeae: Drepanocaruym sewerzowii and Marmoritis complanata. Both assemblies were generated using Oxf...
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Glandular trichomes are traditionally regarded as a defence against insect herbivores in plants. A comprehensive examination of their occurrence across an entire flora is essential for understanding how plant-herbivore interactions influence species abundance, traits, and diversity. In this study, we gathered data on the presence of glandular trich...
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Balancing the biomass requirements of different functions for the purpose of population reproduction and persistence can be challenging for alpine plants due to extreme environmental stresses from both above- and below-ground sources. The presence of ecosystem engineers in alpine ecosystems effectively alleviates microenvironmental stresses, hence...
Article
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Background and Aims There are intrinsic conflicts between signalling to mutualists and concealing (camouflaging) from antagonists. Like animals, plants also use camouflage as a defence against herbivores. However, this can potentially reduce their attractiveness to pollinators. Methods Using Fritillaria delavayi, an alpine camouflaged plant with i...
Article
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Background Accurate species delimitation is fundamental for testing evolutionary theory and provides essential implications for conservation management. The arctic-alpine genus Saxifraga L. (Saxifragaceae) is taxonomically complex and many species have not been critically assessed. The taxonomic and phylogenetic status of Saxifraga lancangensis Y.Y...
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Background Dactylicapnos is a climbing herbaceous vine, distributed from the Himalayas to southwestern China, and some of the species have important medicinal values. However, the chloroplast genomes of Dactylicapnos have never been investigated. In this study, chloroplast genomes of seven Dactylicapnos species covering all three sections and one i...
Preprint
Full-text available
The Nepetoideae, a subfamily of Lamiaceae (mint family), is rich in aromatic plants, many of which are sought after for their use as flavours and fragrances or for their medicinal properties. Here we present genome assemblies for two species in Nepetiodeae: Drepanocaruym sewerzowii and Marmoritis complanata . Both assemblies were generated using Ox...
Article
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The mountains of Southwest China comprise a significant large mountain range and biodiversity hotspot imperiled by global climate change. The high species diversity in this mountain system has long been attributed to a complex set of factors, and recent large‐scale macroevolutionary investigations have placed a broad timeline on plant diversificati...
Article
Aim Reproductive systems strongly influence plants' evolution and adaption, and the biogeographic pattern of its variation has intrigued biologists and ecologists. Here, to test the impacts of paleoglaciation on plants' reproductive system variation, we compared the geographical pattern and environmental drivers in the proportions of different repr...
Article
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When facilitating other species and sustaining plant community structures and biodiversity, alpine cushion plants simultaneously experience negative feedback effects from surrounding vegetation. However, the impact of surrounding vegetation on cushion dynamics remains poorly understood, particularly in terms of allelopathic potentials. To investiga...
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Floral bracts (bracteoles, cataphylls) are leaf-like organs that subtend flowers or inflorescences but are of non-floral origin; they occur in a wide diversity of species, representing multiple independent origins, and exhibit great variation in form and function. Although much attention has been paid to bracts over the past 150 years, our understa...
Preprint
Saxifraga cataphracta, a new species of Saxifragaceae from Southwest China, is described and illustrated. Morphological and molecular evidence (matK, psbA-trnH, psaJ-rpl33) indicate that S. cataphracta belongs to S. sect. Irregulares, and closely related to S. geifolia and S. mengtzeana. The new species can be diagnosed by its leaf blade abaxially...
Article
Despite widespread recognition of pollen's potential sensitivity to ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation (280–315 nm), there remains ongoing debate surrounding the extent and mechanisms of this effect. In this study, using published data on pollen germination and tube growth including 377 pair-wise comparisons from 77 species in 30 families, we present t...
Article
Resolving evolutionary relationships among closely related species with interspecific gene flow is challenging. Genome‐scale data provide opportunities to clarify complex evolutionary relationships in closely related species and to observe variations in species relationships across the genomes of such species. The Himalayan–Hengduan subalpine oaks...
Article
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The strawberry genus, Fragaria, exhibits a wide range of sexual systems and natural ploidy variation. Nearly, all polyploid strawberry species exhibit separate sexes (dioecy). Research has identified the sex‐determining sequences as roughly conserved but with repeatedly changed genomic locations across octoploid strawberries. However, it remains un...
Article
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Polyploidization is a process that typically leads to instantaneous reproductive isolation and has, therefore, been considered as one of the major evolutionary forces in the species-rich Hengduan Mountains (HM), yet this topic remains poorly studied in the region. Allium sikkimense and its relatives (about eight species) compose a natural diploid–p...
Article
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Field investigations and specimen examination revealed no obvious morphological differences among Brandisia chevalieri Bonati, B. discolor J.D.Hooker & Thomson, and B. scandens Bonati. This observation, coupled with previously established phylogenetic evidence, confirms B. chevalieri and B. scandens as synonyms of B. discolor. The issue concerning...
Preprint
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Background The Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains (HHM), known as ‘Sky Islands’, present a unique opportunity for exploring the genomic differentiation of endemic plants, particularly in understanding their “island-like” genetic distinctness. Despite its ecological significance, the detailed population genomics and underlying mechanisms contributing to th...
Article
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Central Asia, especially the Tian-Shan and Pamir-Alay, is a biodiversity hotspot for Hedysarum (Fabaceae) with a high number of endemic species. However, to date, studies of the genus Hedysarum based on molecular data have included only a few species distributed in this region. To fill this gap, we analysed 110 Hedysarum species, 36 of which were f...
Article
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The evolution of dispersal modes has been proposed to promote the diversification of angiosperms. However, little is known about the relative impact of different dispersal modes on plant diversification. We test the association between dispersal modes and diversification rates using Rhamnaceae, the cosmopolitan buckthorn family, as a model. We foun...
Article
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Background How geographical isolation and ecological divergence act together to promote plant diversity in mountainous regions remains largely unknown. In this study, we chose two genera comprising a small number of species distributed in the Sino-Himalayan region, Megacodon (Gentianaceae) and Beesia (Ranunculaceae), which both exhibit a fragmented...
Article
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Background The Sino-Himalayan flora harbors highly diverse high-elevation biotas, but our understanding of its evolutionary history in temporal and spatial dimensions is limited. In this study, we integrated a dated phylogenetic tree with comprehensive species distribution data to investigate changes over time and space in floristic elements, inclu...
Article
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Pollination and seed dispersal are crucial processes for plant reproduction, sharing ecological relevance and similarities, yet they have rarely been considered together. Flowers appear to express greater phenotypic diversity than fruits due to multiple confounding factors, which pose challenges for comparative analyses. The colours of flowers and...
Article
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Eremurus was described at the beginning of the 19th century. However, due to limited sampling and the small number of gene markers to date, its phylogeny and evolution are largely unknown. In this study,we analyzed plastomes from 27 species belonging to 2 subgenera and 3 sections of Eremurus, which are found in Central Asia (its center of diversity...
Article
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Eremurus, a perennial rhizomatous mesophytic ornamental plant and one of the largest genera of the family Asphodelaceae, is distributed mainly in southwestern and central Asia. We sequenced the complete chloroplast genomes of ten species corresponding to all sections of the genus and analyzed their basic structure and evolutionary relationships. Th...
Article
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KEYWORDS plant, extreme environment, astrobiology, deep space exploration, limits of life Editorial on the Research Topic Revisiting the limits of plant life-plant adaptations to extreme terrestrial environments relating to astrobiology and space biology Plants were essential to the early evolution of terrestrial life and colonization of the young...
Preprint
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The expansive Himalayan-Hengduan Mountains (HM) and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) form a biodiversity hotspot imperiled by global change. The species diversity, resulting from myriad factors led to plant diversification from 10 million years ago till now. However, despite understanding speciation timing better, a lack of in-depth population-level stu...
Article
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Our first record of the rare and scatteredly distributed Ixeridium sagittarioides for Guizhou, China, triggered a study to assess its systematic position. The species was placed in four different genera in the course of its taxonomic history and was recently treated with doubts as a member of Ixeridium in the Flora of China. Comparative morphologic...
Poster
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COLE TCH, 陈绍田 CHEN ST, 孙航 SUN H (2023) 紫葳科系统发育海报 © COLE, CHEN, SUN 2023 (CC-BY), Chinese version of: COLE TCH (2022) BIGNONIACEAE Phylogeny Poster (BignonPP) • 选取23个重要的属 • 基于截止至2022年的分子系统学数据构建系统发育树 • 枝长不代表实际进化距离和时间尺度 • 物种数量依据POWO (Plants of the World Online)
Article
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Sexual systems play important roles in angiosperm evolution and exhibit substantial variations among different floras. Thus, studying their evolution in a whole flora is crucial for understanding the formation and maintenance of plant biodiversity and predicting its responses to environmental change. In this study, we determined the patterns of pla...
Article
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Foundational cushion plants can re-organize community structures and sustain a prominent proportion of alpine biodiversity, but they are sensitive to climate change. The loss of cushion species can have broad consequences for associated biota. The potential plant community changes with the population dynamics of cushion plants remain, however, uncl...
Article
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Glasshouse plants are species that trap warmth via specialized morphology and physiology, mimicking a human glasshouse. In the Himalayan alpine region, the highly specialized glasshouse morphology has independently evolved in distinct lineages to adapt to intensive UV radiation and low temperature. Here we demonstrate that the glasshouse structure...
Article
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When benefiting other beneficiaries, cushion plants may reciprocally receive feedback effects. The feedback effects on different sex morphs, however, remains unclear. In this study, taking the gynodioecious Arenaria polytrichiodes as a model species, we aimed to assess the sex-specific facilitation intensity of cushion plant by measuring the benefi...
Article
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The genus Corydalis, with ca. 530 species, has long been considered taxonomically challenging because of its great variability. Previous molecular analyses, based on a few molecular markers and incomplete taxonomic sampling, were clearly inadequate to delimit sections and subgenera. We have performed phylogenetic analyses of Corydalis and related t...
Article
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Saxifraga cataphracta , a new species of Saxifragaceae from Southwest China, is described and illustrated. Morphological and molecular evidence ( matK , psbA‐trnH , psaJ‐rpl33 ) indicate that S. cataphracta belongs in S. sect. Irregulares , and is closely related to S. geifolia and S. mengtzeana . The new species can be diagnosed by its leaf blade...
Article
Full-text available
Background: The Sinodielsia clade of the subfamily Apioideae (Apiacieae) was established in 2008, and it is composed of 37 species from 17 genera. Its circumscription is still poorly delimited and unstable, and interspecific relationships in the clade lack comprehensive analysis. Chloroplast (cp.) genomes provide valuable and informative data sour...
Article
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Camouflage has been reported as a defensive strategy in plants, while our understanding of the evolution of such defensive coloration is still limited. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that camouflaged plants are shorter than non-camouflaged ones in the same habitat. Based on a species list from the subnival zone from the Hengduan Mou...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: How geographical isolation and ecological divergence act together to promote plant diversity in mountainous regions remains largely unknown. In this study, we chose two small genera distributed in the Sino-Himalayan region, Megacodonand Beesia, which both exhibit a fragmented distribution pattern and are found across a wide range of alt...
Article
Full-text available
Evolutionary convergence is one of the most striking examples of adaptation driven by natural selection. However, genomic evidence for convergent adaptation to extreme environments remains scarce. Here, we assembled reference genomes of two alpine plants, Saussurea obvallata (Asteraceae) and Rheum alexandrae (Polygonaceae), with 37,938 and 61,463 a...
Article
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Flower constancy describes the phenomenon that pollinators tend to successively visit flowers of a single species during foraging, reducing reproductive interference in natural communities. The extent of flower constancy is largely determined by the floral traits of co-flowering species. Both higher inter-specific and lower intraspecific difference...
Article
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Plants have long been thought to be less dependent on pollinators for seed production at higher elevations due to adverse pollination environments. However, recent research has yet to consistently support the generality of this expectation. In this study, we asked whether pollinator dependence decreases along an elevational gradient and how it vari...
Article
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In the Flora of China account of Saxifraga mengtzeana Engl. & Irmsch., eight synonyms were attributed to it and one variant, recognized as Saxifraga epiphylla Gornall & Ohba, was split from it. This study reevaluates the taxonomic status of some of the synonyms and of the segregated species in light of new evidence presented here. Morphological and...
Article
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Brandisia is a shrubby genus of about eight species distributed basically in East Asian evergreen broadleaved forests (EBLFs), with distribution centers in the karst regions of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi in southwestern China. Based on the hemiparasitic and more or less liana habits of this genus, we hypothesized that its evolution and distributi...
Article
Each subkingdom of East Asian flora (EAF) has a unique evolutionary history, but which has rarely been described based on phylogeographic studies of EAF species. The Spiraea japonica L. complex, which is widespread in East Asia (EA), has received considerable attention because of the presence of diterpenoid alkaloids (DAs). It provides a proxy for...
Article
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Circaeaster agrestis and Kingdonia uniflora are sister species that reproduce sexually and mainly asexually respectively, providing a good system for comparative genome evolution between taxa with different reproductive models. Comparative genome analyses revealed the two species have similar genome size, but C. agrestis encodes many more genes. Th...
Article
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Aim How species respond to ongoing climate change has been a hot research topic, especially with the controversy in shifting range (movement) or persisting in local habitat (in situ) as the primary response. Assessing the relative roles of range shifts, phenotypic plasticity and genetic adaptation helps us predict the evolutionary fate of species....
Article
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Asexual lineages are perceived to be short-lived on evolutionary timescales. Hence, reports for exceptional cases of putative 'ancient asexuals' usually raise questions about the persistence of such species. So far, there have been few studies to solve the mystery in plants. The mono-typic Kingdonia dating to the early Eocene, contains only K. unif...
Article
The Rubia is one of important medicinal genera of the family Rubiaceae, widely distributed in the Old World with a great chemical diversity of quinones, cyclopeptides and triterpenoids. It has recently aroused us the most attention for its utilization as multi-origin resources and potential anti-tumor constituents of Rubiaceae-type cyclopeptides (R...
Article
The moss Physcomitrium patens is crucial for studying plant development and evolution. Although it has been known that the P. patens genome includes genes acquired from bacteria, fungi and viruses, the functions and evolutionary significance of these acquired genes remain largely unclear. Killer protein 4 (KP4) is a well-studied toxin secreted by a...
Article
Allium jichouense from Sichuan Province, southwestern China is described as a new species. It grows exclusively on alpine screes or gravelly slopes at higher altitudes of 4,300–4,500 m. Morphologically, it resembles A. sikkimense in bulb and floral features, but differs significantly in its falcate or curled, commonly reddish-purple pigmented leave...
Article
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The prolonged interplay between orographic and climatic changes creates biogeographic barriers, resulting in the allopatric differentiation of plants in the Himalaya–Hengduan Mountains. Such consequences have led us to investigate the long-term Neogene–Quaternary geo-climatic history of the Eastern Himalaya–Hengduan Mountains. Narrowly distributed...
Article
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Uzbekistan is widely regarded as one of the most diversified sources of the species of Tulipa L. The present study provides the synopsis of the genus Tulipa in this area. According to literature reviews and field surveys, this genus includes 33 species (34 taxa) distributed in Uzbekistan. In this paper, more than 3,500 herbarium specimens deposited...
Preprint
In the Flora of China account (Pan et al. 2001) of Saxifraga mengtzeana Engl. & Irmsch., eight synonyms were attributed to it and one variant, recognised as S. epiphylla Gornall & Ohba, was split from it. This study re-evaluates the taxonomic status of some of the synonyms and of the segregated species in the light of new evidence presented here. M...