Kåre Gunnar Bremer- Professor
- Retired Professor, Former President at Stockholm University
Kåre Gunnar Bremer
- Professor
- Retired Professor, Former President at Stockholm University
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107
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Introduction
Kåre Gunnar Bremer is retired from his former positions as professor of systematic botany at Uppsala University and Stockholm University.
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Publications (107)
Morphological, molecular and biogeographical information bearing on early evolution of the sunflower alliance of families suggests that the clade containing the extant daisy family (Asteraceae) differentiated in South America during the Eocene, although palaeontological studies on this continent failed to reveal conclusive support for this hypothes...
By way of introduction, this short piece describes a few subjects that attracted Chris Humphries's attention during his thirty-plus years as botanist and systematist. These include botanical cladistics, cladistics and daisies, and biogeographic cladistics. Humphries joined the Department of Botany of the Natural History Museum in 1972 replacing Ale...
Fossil capitula and pollen grains of Asteraceae from the Eocene of Patagonia, southern Argentina, exhibit morphological features
recognized today in taxa, such as Mutisioideae and Carduoideae, that are phylogenetically close to the root of the asteracean
tree. This fossil supports the hypothesis of a South American origin of Asteraceae and an Eocen...
A revised and updated classification for the families of flowering plants is provided. Many recent studies have yielded increasingly detailed evidence for the positions of formerly unplaced families, resulting in a number of newly adopted orders, including Amborellales, Berberidopsidales, Bruniales, Buxales, Chloranthales, Escalloniales, Huerteales...
A new method, PATHd8, for estimating ultrametric trees from trees with edge (branch) lengths proportional to the number of substitutions is proposed. The method allows for an arbitrary number of reference nodes for time calibration, each defined either as absolute age, minimum age, or maximum age, and the tree need not be fully resolved. The method...
Historical biogeography of major monocot groups was investigated by biogeographical analysis of a dated phylogeny including 79 of the 81 monocot families using the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II (APG II) classification. Five major areas were used to describe the family distributions: Eurasia, North America, South America, Africa including Madagascar...
A molecular dating of the phylogenetically basal eudicots (Ranunculales, Proteales, Sabiales, Buxales and Trochodendrales sensu Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II) has been performed using several fossils as minimum age constraints. All rbcL sequences available in GenBank were sampled for the taxa in focus. Dating was performed using penalized likelihoo...
Phylogenetic research on monocots has been extraordinarily active over the past years. With the familial interre-lationships being sufficiently understood, the question of divergence times and crown node ages of major lineages comes into focus. In this study we present the first attempt to estimate crown and stem node ages for most orders and famil...
Estimation of divergence times from sequence data has become increasingly feasible in recent years. Conflicts between fossil evidence and molecular dates have sparked the development of new methods for inferring divergence times, further encouraging these efforts. In this paper, available methods for estimating divergence times are reviewed, especi...
We present a phylogenetic dating of asterids, based on a 111-taxon tree representing all major groups and orders and 83 of the 102 families of asterids, with an underlying data set comprising six chloroplast DNA markers totaling 9914 positions. Phylogenetic dating was done with semiparametric rate smoothing by penalized likelihood. Confidence inter...
We obtained two most parsimonious cladograms using a data set of 100 characters derived from morphology, anatomy, embryology, chemistry, and karyology, combined with three nucleotide sequence data sets (the chlo-roplast genes atpB, ndhF, and rbcL) in a phylogenetic analysis of all 12 currently recognized families in the angiosperm order Asterales,...
A revised and updated classification for the families of the flowering plants is provided. Newly adopted orders include Austrobaileyales, Canellales, Gunnerales, Crossosomatales and Celastrales. Pertinent literature published since the first APG classification is included, such that many additional families are now placed in the phylogenetic scheme...
Asterids comprise 1/4-1/3 of all flowering plants and are classified in 10 orders and >100 families. The phylogeny of asterids is here explored with jackknife parsimony analysis of chloroplast DNA from 132 genera representing 103 families and all higher groups of asterids. Six different markers were used, three of the markers represent protein codi...
The mean path length (MPL) method, a simple method for dating nodes in a phylogenetic tree, is presented. For small trees the age estimates and corresponding confidence intervals, calibrated with fossil data, can be calculated by hand, and for larger trees a computer program gives the results instantaneously (a Pascal program is available upon requ...
Phylogenetic interrelationships among all 18 families of Poales were assessed by cladistic analysis of chloroplast DNA rbcL and atpB sequences from 65 species. There are two well-supported main clades; the graminoid clade with Poaceae (grasses), Anarthriaceae, Centrolepidaceae, Ecdeiocoleaceae, Flagellariaceae, Joinvilleaceae, and Restionaceae; and...
A data matrix of 143 morphological and chemical characters for 142 genera of euasterids according to the APG system was compiled
and complemented with rbcL and ndhF sequences for most of the genera. The data were subjected to parsimony analysis and support was assessed by bootstrapping.
Strict consensus trees from analyses of morphology alone and...
A robust phylogeny of 40 genera and all seven families of the Liliales based on rbcL sequences was dated by the mean branch-length method of Bremer and Gustafsson and by Sanderson's nonparametric rate smoothing. The basal node was set to 82 million years (my) from the results of a previous more extensive dating involving all monocots. Confidence in...
The phylogeny of flowering plants is now rapidly being disclosed by analysis of DNA sequence data, and currently, many Cretaceous fossils of flowering plants are being described. Combining molecular phylogenies with reference fossils of known minimum age makes it possible to date the nodes of the phylogenetic tree. The dating may be done by countin...
During the last years there has been a focus on plant systematics not only in scientific journals but also in radio, TV, and press. We have seen announcements of new systems and Linnaeus has been said to be out of date. With new methods (cladistics, computer analysis and molecular data) an enormous amount of new information about relationships has...
Based on results from cladistic analyses of morphology and DNA sequences (the two chloroplast genes rbcL and ndhF), the three Australasian families Alseuosmiaceae, Argophyllaceae, and Phellinaceae are each monophyletic, belong within Asterales, and together form a monophyletic group. Two new rbcL sequences and thirteen new ndhF sequences were obtai...
Swenson, U. & Bremer, K.: On the circumscription of the Blennospermatinae (Asteraceae, Senecioneae) based on ndh F sequence data. – Taxon 48: 7‐14. 1999. – ISSN 0040‐0262.
The subtribe Blennospermatinae is usually defined to comprise four genera (Abrotanella, Blennosperma, Crocidium, and Ischnea). The placement of Abrotanella in the Blennospermatin...
The ever-larger data matrices resulting from continuing improvements in DNA sequencing techniques require faster and more efficient methods of phylogenetic analysis. Here we explore a promising new method, parsimony jackknifing, by analyzing a matrix comprising 2538 sequences of the chloroplast generbcL. The sequences included cover a broad taxonom...
Cladistic analyses of Stylidiaceae (Asterales), using Donatiaceae as outgroup and with both morphological and molecular characters, produced two equally parsimonious cladograms. The analyses used morphological characters for 26 species and molecular characters from the chloroplast DNA genes rbcL and ndhF for 12 species. The cladograms indicate that...
Recent cladistic analyses are revealing the phylogeny of flowering plants in increasing detail, and there is support for the monophyly of many major groups above the family level. With many elements of the major branching sequence of phylogeny established, a revised suprafamilial classification of flowering plants becomes both feasible and desirabl...
The genus Carpodetus from New Zealand, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands, traditionally has been included in the extremely heterogeneous Saxifragaceae sensu lato, but on account of morphological peculiarities it has sometimes been classified in its own family. On palynological grounds it has been suggested to belong near the Ericales. Parsimony a...
The sunflower alliance of families comprises nearly 10% of all flowering plant species and includes the largest of all plant families, the sunflower family Asteraceae, which has 23,000 species, and the bellflower family Campanulaceae. Both are worldwide in distribution, but the majority of their species occur in the northern hemisphere. Recently it...
Two parsimony analyses based on morphological data of the subtribe Blennospermatinae (Asteraceae, Senecioneae) were performed to generate a hypothesis for the phylogenetic relationships within the subtribe, which comprises four genera and 27 species of both radiate and disciform genera distributed around the Pacific Rim. Heterogeneity of the group...
Historical biogeography of the trans-Pacific Asteraceae genus Abrotanella (Senecioneae, Blennospermatinae) was analyzed with cladistic methods. The genus comprises 19 alpine species and is restricted to six areas of endemism, South America, Australia-New Guinea, Tasmania, New Zealand, Stewart Island, and the sub-Antarctic Campbell and Auckland Isla...
Plant-specific polyketide synthase genes constitute a gene superfamily, including universal chalcone synthase [CHS; malonyl-CoA:4-coumaroyl-CoA malonyltransferase (cyclizing) (EC 2.3.1.74)] genes, sporadically distributed stilbene synthase (SS) genes, and atypical, as-yet-uncharacterized CHS-like genes. We have recently isolated from Gerbera hybrid...
A cladistic analysis of 22 morphological characters in 5 species ofMatricaria and 4 species and 2 subspecies ofMicrocephala shows thatMatricaria songarica, also known asCancrinia discoidea, is nested withinMicrocephala. It is consequently transferred to that genus and the new combinationMicrocephala discoidea is made. With this recircumscription,Ma...
Bergqvist, G., Bremer, B. & Bremer, K.: Chloroplast DNA variation and the tribal position of Eremothamnus (Asteraceae) . – Taxon 44: 341‐350. 1995. – ISSN 0040‐0262.
The genus Eremothamnus has been classified in several tribes, in recent times either in the Arctoteae or in a new tribe Eremothamneae ; because of its isolated position within the fami...
A new plasmid-borne gene, dhfrVIII, encoding high-level trimethoprim resistance (TpR) was found in an intestinal Escherichia coli. It seems to be a widely occurring mediator of TpR. Among 973 examined TpR E. coli, the new resistance gene was found in 13 (1.3%) isolates from Sweden, Finland and Nigeria. The new gene was sequenced and found to code f...
In search for the sister group of the Asteraceae, morphological evidence was assembled for investigating the relationship between the Asteraceae and those families most frequently considered to be their closest relatives, in particular the Calyceraceae, Campanulaceae (along with the frequently included Lobeliaceae, Cyphiaceae, Cyphocarpaceae, and N...
Pak, J.‐H. & Bremer, K.: Phylogeny and reclassification of the genus Lapsana (Asteraceae: Lactuceae). – Taxon 44: 13‐21. 1995. – ISSN 0040‐0262.
A cladistic analysis of 40 morphological, fruit anatomical, and chromosomal characters in the five species of Lapsana and eleven other species of the Lactuceae (Crepidinae) shows that Lapsana is polyphylet...
In search for the sister group of the Asteraceae, morphological evidence was assembled for investigating the relationship between the Asteraceae and those families most frequently considered to be their closest relatives, in particular the Calyceraceae, Campanulaceae (along with the frequently included Lobeliaceae, Cyphiaceae, Cyphocarpaceae, and N...
The subtribal classification of tribe Lactuceae is emended to include three new subtribes: Catananchinae (Mediterranean; Catananche, Hymenonema, Rothmaleria), Malacothricinae (North American; Anisocoma, Atrichoseris, Calycoseris, Glyptopleura, Malacothrix, Munzothamnus, Pinaropappus), and Sonchinae (almost worldwide; Sonchus, Launaea, and their imm...
Phylogenetic reconstruction--the method by which biologists examine the relationship between living and extinct organisms in an effort to identify evolutionary pathways--has seen radical changes in the last ten years. But as rapid advances in mathematical, molecular, developmental, and cladistic techniques have greatly improved reconstruction effor...
Abstract— Branch support is quantified as the extra length needed to lose a branch in the consensus of near-most-parsimonious trees. This approach is based solely on the original data, as opposed to the data perturbation used in the bootstrap procedure. If trees have been generated by Farris's successive approximations approach to character weighti...
The new genus Lugenocypsela Swenson & K. Bremer is described. The genus comprises two species, with the new combinations Lagenocypsela latifolia (Mattf.) Swenson & K. Bremer, based on Ischnea latifolia Mattf., and Lugenocypsela papuana (J. Kost.) Swenson & K. Bremer, based on Rhamphogyne papuana J. Kost. A key, descriptions, illustrations and distr...
Although the proportion of "functional" DNA is eukaryotic genomes is both debatable and subject to definition, most sequences gathered for phylogenetic purposes are indisputably functional. For example, patterns of variation are likely to be strongly constrained in ribosomal RNA's because of their structural and catalytic roles in protein translati...
TheAstereae were surveyed and the genera arranged in 23 informal groups. The generic groups were used to sample representative genera for a cladistic analysis based on morphological characters. The resulting cladogram was used for discussion of evolution and subtribal classification within the tribe. The lower basic chromosome numbers x = 4, 5, 6,...
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The search for centers of origin has fallen into disrepute because of unfounded assumptions and spurious criteria. Nevertheless,
a proper approach to understanding ancestral areas would enhance the study of the natural history of organisms. If there is
reason to assume that a group originally had a more restricted distribution than it has today, a...
Using carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) subgroup-specific degenerate PCR primers, we have identified three new CEA gene family member L/N exons (CGM9, CGM10, and CGM11) and all previously reported L/N exons of the CEA subgroup (CEA, BGP, NCA, CGM1, CGM2, CGM6, CGM7, and CGM8). This suggests that the CEA subgroup contains 11 genes. CGM9, CGM10, and CGM...
The phylogeny of the tribe Coreopsideae was investigated by cladistic analysis of generic interrelationships using a set of 37 morphological characters. The cladograms display three main groups: 1) a rather vaguely characterized assemblage of mainly American genera, viz. Coreopsis, Cosmos, Heterosperma, Henricksonia, Dahlia, Thelesperma, Coreocarpu...
The members of the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)/pregnancy-specific glycoprotein (PSG) gene family have a characteristic N-terminal domain that is homologous to the immunoglobulin variable region. We have estimated the size of the PSG subfamily by identification of N-domain exons from isolated genomic clones and from total genomic DNA through PCR...
Phylogenetic interrelationships of 12 genera of the Heliantheae s. lat., as well as two genera of the Anthemideae and Eupatorieae, were assessed by chloroplast DNA restriction site analysis. The 14 investigated species represented Guizotia, Helianthus, Melampodium, Rudbeckia, Sigesbeckia, Tridax, and Verbesina (Heliantheae s. str.), Helenium, Hymen...
The Asteraceae are commonly divided into two large subfamilies, the Cichorioideae (syn. Lactucoideae; Mutisieae, Cardueae, Lactuceae, Vernonieae, Liabeae, Arctoteae) and the Asteroideae (Inuleae, Astereae, Anthemideae, Senecioneae, Calenduleae, Heliantheae, Eupatorieae). Recent phylogenetic analyses based on morphological and chloroplast DNA data c...
The Asteraceae are generally divided into two large subfamilies, the Cichorioideae (syn. Lactucoideae; tribes Mutisieae, Cardueae, Lactuceae, Vernonieae, Liabeae, Arctoteae) and the Asteroideae (Inuleae, Astereae, Anthemideae, Senecioneae, Calenduleae, Heliantheae, Eupatorieae). Recent phylogenetic analyses based on morphological and chloroplast DN...
We present a cladistic analysis of 53 taxa from Asteraceae using 72 characters of mainly morphological data. Results reveal subfamily Cichorioideae is paraphyletic. The Mutisieae constitute a basal grade that contains monophyletic groups with Mutisia and Cardueae sensu lato. The Arctotideae, Liabeae, Vernonieae, and Lactuceae form a clade together...
Parsimony analysis of the Relhania group of genera (Asteraceae-Gnaphalieae-Relhaniinae) yields a revised hypothesis of their phylogeny. The genera Leysera L. and Oedera L. are demonstrated to have their closest relatives within Relhania L'Her., which is shown to be paraphyletic as hitherto circumscribed. A revised generic classification is proposed...
Oligonucleotide catalogues from 16S rRNA have been a major source of information for phylogenetic reconstruction among procaryotes. Several large procaryote groups have been analyzed and phylogenies presented. Catalogues are also available for many chloroplasts. The hypotheses of phylogeny are derived mainly from similarity (phenetic) comparisons o...
Amino acid sequence data are available for ribulose biphosphate carboxylase, plastocyanin, cytochrome c, and ferredoxin for a number of angiosperm families. Cladistic analysis of the data, including evaluation of all equally or almost equally parsimonious cladograms, shows that much homoplasy (parallelisms and reversals) is present and that few or...
Amino acid sequence data are available for ribulose biphosphate carboxylase, plastocyanin, cytochrome c, and ferredoxin for a number of angiosperm families. Cladistic analysis of the data, including evaluation of all equally or almost equally parsimonious cladograms, shows that much homoplasy (parallelisms and reversals) is present and that few or...
Abstract— A cladistic analysis involving 27 tribes and subtribes of Asteraceae and 81 characters is presented. The terminal taxa are mainly those of present tribal classification, though some apparently poly- and paraphyletic tribes, notably the Mutisieae and the Inuleae, have been represented by sub-tribal taxa. Characters are assembled from all a...
Interrelationships of major groups of green algae and land plants are currently hypothesized in cladograms by various authors. A summary cladogram is given and controversial points such as the precise sister group of the land plants are indicated. Sequence data from 5S ribosomal RNA are more homoplasious than morphological data and hence less usefu...
The South African genus Hymenolepis Cass. was recently distinguished from Athanasia L. by Källersjö. It differs by its slender capitula and a pappus of scales. A key to the 7 species is presented and the new species H. cynopus Bremer & Källersjö is described.
Abstract— A cladogram of green plants involving all major extant groups of green algae, bryophytes, pteridophytes, and seed plants is presented. It is partly based on contributions by B. Mishler and S. Churchill, H. Wagner, and P. Crane. The relationships of green plants to other green organisms (Prochloron, euglenophytes) are discussed. The charac...
Abstract— Our knowledge of fundamental angiosperm interrelationships is still very incomplete. The absence of a narrowly circumscribed gymnosperm outgroup, ideally the sister group, makes character evaluation, necessary for a cladistic analysis, difficult. According to current views the superorder Magnoliiflorae with a number of other groups, for e...
Foliar sclereids are investigated in 41 Memecylon species and in Lijndenia laurina Zoll. & Mor. (=Memecylon oligoneurum Bl.). The predominance of filiform sclereids in the Memecylon species is remarkable. Lijndenia laurina has ramiform sclereids.
Asaemia is a genus of one species with two subspecies from southern Africa. The nomenclature and systematic position of Asaemia and the related Stilpnophyton are discussed. Both genera are related to Athanasia. Asaemia minula (L. f.) Bremer and A. minuta ssp. inermis (Phillips) Bremer are new combinations. Stilpnophyton is typified by S. longifoliu...
Disjunct distributions are, in traditional biogeography, explained as the result of long-distance dispersal across geographical barriers. In vicariance biogeography it is assumed that the disjunctions arose together with the geographical barriers and that vicariant taxa evolved as a result of isolation following establishment of the barriers. Dispe...
The genus Lijndenia Zoll. & Mor. is re–established and emended to include four species, L. laurina Zoll. & Mor. from W Malesia and Java, L. capitellata (Arn.) Bremer from Ceylon, L. gardneri (Thw.) Bremer from Ceylon, and L. barteri (Hook. f.) Bremer from tropical W Africa. The latter three names are new combinations.
A cladistic classification comprises strictly monophyletic taxa only. Groups such as the green algae and the gymnosperms are not monophyletic and should not be recognized taxonomically. In this proposal the green plants are recognized as a sub–kingdom, Chlorobionta. One of the divisions is Slreptophyta with some green algae and the higher plants, t...
Seeds and embryos in 12 Ceylonese species of Memecylon are of three types with 1) cotyledons wrinkled and hypocotyl long, 2) cotyledons rolled and hypocotyl short, and 3) cotyledons fleshy and hypocotyl short. The first type is common in Memecylon and it occurs e.g. in M. capitellatum, the type species. The second type is found in M. arnottianum an...
Phylogenetic systematics in the sense of W. Hennig has exerted a great influence on systematic zoology. Among botanists, however, it has been overlooked and the present paper is intended as a brief summary of the principles, results, and advantages of its application in botanical systematics.
In phylogenetic reconstruction monophyletic groups are e...
