Historical biogeography of the fern genus Deparia (Athyriaceae) and its relation with polyploidy Li-Yaung Kuo a , Atsushi Ebihara b , Wataru Shinohara c , Germinal Rouhan d , Kenneth R. Wood e , Chun-Neng Wang a,f,⇑ , Wen-Liang Chiou g,h,⇑ a Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan b Department of Botany, National Museum of Nature and Science, Amakubo 4-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0005, Japan c Faculty of Education, Kagawa University, Saiwaicho 1-1, Takamatsu, Kagawa 760-8522, Japan d Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (UMR 7205 CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE), Herbier National, 16 rue Buffon CP39, F-75005 Paris, France e National Tropical Botanical Garden, Kauai, Kalaheo, HI 96741, USA f Department of Life Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan g Division of Botanical Garden, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, Taipei 10066, Taiwan h Dr. Cecilia Koo Botanic Conservation Center, Pingtung County 906, Taiwan article info Article history: Received 7 May 2016 Revised 6 August 2016 Accepted 9 August 2016 Available online 9 August 2016 Keywords: Athyriaceae Deparia Ferns Biogeography Long-distance dispersal Polyploid abstract The wide geographical distribution of many fern species is related to their high dispersal ability. However, very limited studies surveyed biological traits that could contribute to colonization success after dispersal. In this study, we applied phylogenetic approaches to infer historical biogeography of the fern genus Deparia (Athyriaceae, Eupolypods II). Because polyploids are suggested to have better col- onization abilities and are abundant in Deparia, we also examined whether polyploidy could be correlated to long-distance dispersal events and whether polyploidy could play a role in these dispersals/establish- ment and range expansion. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic reconstructions were based on a four-region combined cpDNA dataset (rps16-matK IGS, trnL-L-F, matK and rbcL; a total of 4252 char- acters) generated from 50 ingroup (ca. 80% of the species diversity) and 13 outgroup taxa. Using the same sequence alignment and maximum likelihood trees, we carried out molecular dating analyses. The result- ing chronogram was used to reconstruct ancestral distribution using the DEC model and ancestral ploidy level using ChromEvol. We found that Deparia originated around 27.7 Ma in continental Asia/East Asia. A vicariant speciation might account for the disjunctive distribution of East Asia–northeast North America. There were multiple independent long-distance dispersals to Africa/Madagascar (at least once), Southeast Asia (at least once), south Pacific islands (at least twice), Australia/New Guinea/New Zealand (at least once), and the Hawaiian Islands (at least once). In particular, the long-distance dispersal to the Hawaiian Islands was associated with polyploidization, and the dispersal rate was slightly higher in the polyploids than in diploids. Moreover, we found five species showing recent infraspecific range expansions, all of which took place concurrently with polyploidization. In conclusion, our study provides the first investigation using phylogenetic and biogeographic analyses trying to explore the link between historical biogeography and ploidy evolution in a fern genus and our results imply that polyploids might be better colonizers than diploids. Ó 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Ferns are the most species-rich lineage among the seed-free vascular plants. They display different biogeographical patterns than flowering plants, in part because of the generally higher dis- persal ability of spores compared to seeds (Kessler, 2000; Qian, 2009; Kreft et al., 2010; Patiño et al., 2014, 2015; Weigelt et al., 2015). For example, ferns account for a greater percentage of http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2016.08.004 1055-7903/Ó 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding authors at: Room 1207, 12F, Life Science Building, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Da’an Dist., Taipei 10617, Taiwan (C.-N. Wang). Room 915, 9F, No. 67, Sanyuan St., Taipei 10066, Taiwan (W.-L. Chiou). E-mail addresses: salvinia@hotmail.com (L.-Y. Kuo), leafy@ntu.edu.tw (C.-N. Wang), chiouwl@gmail.com (W.-L. Chiou). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 104 (2016) 123–134 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ympev