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Pervasive hybridization and introgression in Diervilleae (Caprifoliaceae).

Feiteng Hao·Haonan Sun·Chang Guo·Yushuang Wang·Lei Wang·Nataliya Kovtonyuk·Gangmin Zhang·Enze Li·Wenpan Dong
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Abstract

Diervilleae (Caprifoliaceae) is a horticulturally important lineage with striking floral diversity and a long history of interspecific crossing, suggesting reticulate evolution. We integrated nuclear SNPs and whole plastome data to reconstruct a phylogenomic backbone for the tribe and to identify hybrids, cultivated accessions, and introgression among lineages. Nuclear and plastid phylogenies consistently recover Weigela and Diervilla as reciprocally monophyletic and resolve four major lineages within Weigela, providing a reproducible framework for revising sectional limits and species boundaries. Cultivated accessions form a well supported clade sister to W. florida and show predominantly W. florida ancestry while retaining contributions from multiple wild lineages, consistent with recurrent crossing, backcrossing, and selection. Analyses of wild populations reveal recurrent hybrids and enable plausible parental combinations to be inferred. Tests across the genome further indicate strong evidence for historical introgression across Diervilleae, with the strongest signals involving W. middendorffiana, W. maximowiczii, and Diervilla. Fossil evidence, divergence time estimation, and paleodistribution modelling together suggest range expansion during the Miocene and Pliocene followed by climate driven contraction, providing a spatiotemporal context for episodic contact, introgression, and the East Asia-North America disjunction.

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Hybridization, GeneticPhylogenySequence Analysis, DNAGenetic IntrogressionPolymorphism, Single NucleotideCell NucleusEvolution, MolecularDNA, PlantDNA, ChloroplastBayes TheoremCultivarsDiervilleaeEast Asia–North America disjunctionHybridizationIntrogressionPhylogenomicsJournal Article

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Feiteng Hao, Haonan Sun, Chang Guo, Yushuang Wang, Lei Wang, Nataliya Kovtonyuk, Gangmin Zhang, Enze Li, Wenpan Dong. 2026-08-22. Pervasive hybridization and introgression in Diervilleae (Caprifoliaceae).. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2026.108723

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Journal Article resourceBayes Theorem subjectCell Nucleus subjectCultivars subjectDNA, Chloroplast subjectDNA, Plant subjectDiervilleae subjectEast Asia–North America disjunction subjectEvolution, Molecular subjectGenetic Introgression subjectHybridization subjectHybridization, Genetic subjectIntrogression subjectJournal Article subject

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