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1. Article2026Open Access

   From Andes to the dry diagonal: phylogenomics and trait evolution elucidate the radiation of cacti in South American drylands(opens in a new tab)

   

   Romeiro‐Brito, Monique; Lanna, Flávia M.; Telhe, Milena C.; Carstens, Bryan C.; Digiampietri, Luciano A.; Zappi, Daniela C.; Taylor, Nigel P.; Franco, Fernando F; Moraes, Evandro Marsola

   Funded by CNPq, FAPESP, NSF

   The expansion of arid and dry ecosystems during the Miocene played a key role in the diversification of succulent plants; however, the relative contributions of biotic traits and environmental factors linked to aridity remain unclear. We investigate diversification in the cactus tribe Cereeae by integrating phylogenomic, biogeographic, and trait-based diversification analyses. We reconstructed a time-calibrated phylogeny and inferred ancestral ranges through biogeographic process-based modeling. We assessed diversification rate heterogeneity and evaluated the impacts of biotic traits and environmental variables using machine learning and trait-dependent diversification analyses. Our results indicate that Cereeae diverged in the late Miocene (∼9 Ma), with ancestral range spanning from the Central and Southern Andes to Espinhaço Mountain Range in Southeastern Brazil. Vicariance events, likely driven by marine transgressions and the assembly of the Cerrado savanna, promoted isolation of taxa across the Andes and Southeastern Brazil. Eastern Brazil was recolonized via jump dispersal during the Miocene-Pliocene transition. Diversification rates were strongly associated with rupicolous substrate preference and globose growth form, while environmental variables showed a negligible correlation with diversification. Our findings underscore the Southern Andes as a likely source of xerophytic lineages and highlight ecological specialization as the dominant driver of Cereeae radiation. This study demonstrates how integrative approaches can disentangle complex evolutionary processes, revealing that morphological innovation prevailed over environmental filtering in shaping the diversification of Cereeae in dry habitats.

   DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2026.108714PhylogenomicsTraitAdaptive radiationPhylogenetics
2. Article2026

   Phylogenomics and trait evolution illuminate the diversification and systematics of Discocactus (Cactaceae)(opens in a new tab)

   

   Telhe, Milena C.; Taylor, Nigel P.; Romeiro‐Brito, Monique; Zappi, Daniela C.; Olsthoorn, Gerardus; Digiampietri, Luciano A.; Franco, Fernando F; Moraes, Evandro Marsola

   Funded by FAPESP

   BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Understanding how plant traits mediate adaptation and diversification across contrasting environments remains a major challenge in evolutionary ecology. This gap is especially evident in the Neotropics, where Savannas and Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests (SDTFs), represented here by the Cerrado and Caatinga phytogeographic domains, differ markedly in climate and ecological filters, yet remain underrepresented in trait-based evolutionary studies. Here, we investigated the evolutionary history of Discocactus (Cactaceae) to identify which morphological characters are associated with species occurrence across these contrasting biomes and to place these patterns within a phylogenetic and temporal framework. METHODS: We generated a time-calibrated phylogenomic hypothesis for Discocactus using the Cactaceae591 probe set and integrated predictive machine learning, ancestral state reconstruction, and phylogenetic comparative analyses to identify morphological characters associated with species occurrence in the Savanna and SDTF biomes. KEY RESULTS: We recovered the first dated phylogeny for Discocactus, providing evidence for the recognition of 16 distinct species, including the reinstatement of D. boomianus. Divergence-time analyses indicate that the genus originated in the Pliocene and diversified rapidly during the Plio-Pleistocene transition, particularly within a major Savanna-associated clade. Across analyses, flower length and stem diameter emerged as the main morphological characters associated with biome occupancy. Both characters also showed significant associations with climatic variation in phylogenetically informed regression analyses, with SDTF species tending to have shorter flowers and smaller stems than Savanna species. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide a robust phylogenomic framework for interpreting diversification in Discocactus and show that morphological differentiation within the genus is associated with ecological contrasts between Neotropical SDTF and Savanna biomes. By integrating phylogenomics, predictive modeling, and phylogenetic comparative methods, this study highlights how genomic and trait-based approaches can help explain character evolution and diversification across contrasting environments.

   DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcag209BiomePhylogenomicsPhylogenetic treePhylogeneticsTrait