@article{Palchetti_Gori_Biricolti_Masoni_Bini_Tani_Falsini_Corti_Papini_2021, title={Possible hybrid speciation for two Malagasy species of Piper L. (Piperaceae)}, volume={73}, url={https://riviste.fupress.net/index.php/caryologia/article/view/1133}, DOI={10.13128/caryologia-1133}, abstractNote={<p class="p1">Two new species of genus <span class="s1">Piper</span> L. from Madagascar: <span class="s1">Piper malgassicum</span> Papini, Palchetti, M. Gori & Rota Nodari and <span class="s1">Piper tsarasotrae </span>Papini, Palchetti, M. Gori & Rota Nodari, were analyzed to investigate their phylogenetic position and evolutionary history. Both plastidial and nuclear markers were used for sequencing. The plastidial markers (<span class="s1">ndh</span>F and <span class="s1">trn</span>L intron) showed a close relationship between the two species with respect to the other species of <span class="s1">Piper</span>. Both species appeared phylogenetically related to the African <span class="s1">P. guineense</span> and the Malagasyan/Mascarenhas endemic <span class="s1">P. borbonense</span>. The nuclear marker (<span class="s1">G3pdh</span>) amplification produced two separate sets of sequences: “long” sequences and “short” sequences, characterized by some long deletions. Analyzing together the nuclear sequences, we observed that the “long” sequence of <span class="s1">P. tsarasotrae</span> had a stricter relationship to the African accessions of <span class="s1">P. guineense</span>, while the accession of <span class="s1">P. malgassicum</span> was more strictly related to <span class="s1">P. borbonense</span>. On the contrary both “short” sequences of <span class="s1">P. malgassicum</span> and <span class="s1">P. tsaratsotrae</span> resulted phylogenetically related to Asian accessions and more distantly related to the formerly cited species. This unexpected result was tentatively explained with a more ancient hybridization event between an ancestor of <span class="s1">P. malgassicum</span> and <span class="s1">P. tsarasotrae</span> (and possibly <span class="s1">P. borbonense</span>) and an Asian species of <span class="s1">Piper</span>. The Asian contribution would have produced the ancestors carrying the “short” sequences. A more recent hybridization event would have led to the separation of <span class="s1">P. malgassicum</span> from<span class="s1"> P. tsarasotrae</span> with an African pollen-derived genome contribution from <span class="s1">P. guineense</span> or, more probably, an ancestor thereof, to an ancestor of <span class="s1">P. tsarasotrae</span>. The chromosome numbers of <span class="s1">P. tsarasotrae</span> (2n = about 38) and <span class="s1">P. malgassicum</span> (2n = about 46), were more similar to the Asian species than to the American species. Unfortunately, no chromosome number of the African species <span class="s1">P. guineense</span> is currently available, to compare the chromosomal numbers.</p>}, number={4}, journal={Caryologia}, author={Palchetti, Enrico and Gori, Massimo and Biricolti, Stefano and Masoni, Alberto and Bini, Lorenzo and Tani, Corrado and Falsini, Sara and Corti, Emilio and Papini, Alessio}, year={2021}, month={May}, pages={27–38} }