Insights into the ancestral flowers of Ranunculales
Résumé
The question of the origin of petals has long been debated in the botanical literature. Ranunculales are characterized by a spectacular floral diversity, particularly at the perianth level. Recent progress in understanding the genetic bases of floral organ identity suggests a single origin for petals in Ranunculaceae contrasting with the traditional morphological hypothesis of repeated evolution. However, perianth evolution at order level remains incompletely understood. Recent advances in the elucidation of phylogenetic relationships within the order now provide a new opportunity to study character evolution with model-based methods. We used ancestral state reconstruction methods that take into account various sources of uncertainty to reconstruct the evolution of floral traits at the scale of Ranunculales using a consensus phylogenetic framework of 144 terminal species representing all families within the order. Ranunculales likely had ancestrally three trimerous whorls of perianth organs differentiated into two categories of petaloid organs differing in their shape. Each whorl was further lost or duplicated. Moreover, our results support the hypothesis of a single origin of highly specialised (elaborate) nectariferous petals within Ranunculaceae.
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