Spatial distribution patterns and formation of global spermatophytes.

Journal: Journal of integrative plant biology
Published Date: May 23, 2025

Abstract

The evolution of spermatophytes (seed plants) is relatively well known in their evolutionary relationships over temporal changes, but their spatial evolution is another critical yet often neglected lens, especially using a taxon-based approach. Here, by integrating geographic distributions and origin locations across 429 spermatophyte families worldwide with unsupervised machine learning approaches, we constructed a Spermatophyte Spatial Evolutionary System that classifies global spermatophytes into 18 distribution types and six distribution supertypes within three primary floristic elements: cosmopolitan, tropical, and temperate. We found that the three elements all primarily originated from Gondwana, with the cosmopolitan element being the youngest and the temperate element being the oldest in terms of origin. They primarily formed during the Tertiary, particularly between the Eocene and Miocene, driven mainly by climate, long-distance dispersal, and tectonic movement, while each exhibited distinct migration routes and formation models. Our results provide novel insights into the spatial evolution of global spermatophytes and highlight that similar distribution patterns of spermatophytes were driven by their comparable formation processes and mechanisms at the levels of floristic element, distribution supertype, and type.

Authors

  • Xian-Han Huang
    State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Kunming Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China.
  • Tao Deng
    Department of Gastroenterology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
  • Jun-Tong Chen
    State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Kunming Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China.
  • Quan-Sheng Fu
    State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Kunming Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China.
  • Xin-Jian Zhang
    State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Kunming Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China.
  • Nan Lin
    Institute of Environment and Ecology, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China.
  • Peng-Rui Luo
    State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Kunming Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China.
  • Qun Liu
    Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery, the Fourth Hospital of Tianjin, Tianjin 300222, China; Email: 1502831499@qq.com.
  • Xin-Yuan Kuai
    State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Kunming Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China.
  • Jing-Yi Peng
    State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Kunming Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China.
  • Jacob-B Landis
    School of Integrative Plant Science, Section of Plant Biology and the L.H. Bailey Hortorium, Cornell University, Ithaca, 14853, New York, USA.
  • Yan-Tao Wei
    Faculty of Artificial Intelligence in Education, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China.
  • Heng-Chang Wang
    CAS Key Laboratory of Plant Germplasm Enhancement and Specialty Agriculture, Wuhan Botanical Garden, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430074, China.
  • Hang Sun
    CAS Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China.

Keywords

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