@ARTICLE{TreeBASE2Ref2139, author = {Christoph Heibl and Susanne S Renner and Hanno Schaefer}, title = {Gourds afloat: A dated phylogeny reveals an Asian origin of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae) and numerous oversea dispersal events.}, year = {2008}, keywords = {}, doi = {}, url = {}, pmid = {}, journal = {Proceedings of the Royal Society B}, volume = {}, number = {}, pages = {}, abstract = {Knowing the geographic origin of economically important plants is important for genetic improvement and conservation, but has been slowed by uneven geographic sampling where relatives occur in remote areas of difficult access. Less biased species sampling can be achieved when herbarium collections are included as DNA sources. Here, we address the history of Cucurbitaceae, one of the economically most important families of plants, using a multi-gene phylogeny for 114 of the 115 genera and 25 % of the 960 species. Worldwide sampling was achieved by using specimens from 30 herbaria. Results reveal an Asian origin of Cucurbitaceae in the Late Cretaceous, followed by the repeated spread of lineages into the African, American, and Australian continents via transoceanic long distance dispersal (LDD). North American cucurbits stem from at least seven range expansions of Central and South American lineages; Madagascar was colonized 13 times, always from Africa; Australia was reached twelve times, apparently always from Southeast Asia. Overall, Cucurbitaceae underwent at least 43 successful LDD events over the past 60 my, which would translate into an average of seven LDDs every ten million years. These and similar findings from other angiosperms stress the need for an increased tapping of museum collections to achieve extensive geographic sampling in plant phylogenetics.} }

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