Radiations are especially important for generating species biodiversity in mountainous ecosystems.The contribution of hybridization to such radiations has rarely been examined.Here,we use extensive genomic data to test whether hybridization was involved in evolutionary radiation within Rhododendron subgenus Hymenanthes,whose members show strong geographic isolation in the mountains of southwest China.We sequenced genomes for 143 species of this subgenus and 93 species of four other subgenera,and found that Hymenanthes was monophyletic and radiated during the late Oligocene to middle Miocene.Widespread hybridization events were inferred within and between the identified clades and subclades.This suggests that hybridization occurred both early and late during diversification of subgenus Hymenanthes,although the extent to which hybridization,speciation through mixing-isolation-mixing or hybrid speciation,accelerated the diversification needs further exploration.Cycles of isolation and contact in such and other montane ecosystems may have together promoted species radiation through hybridization between diverging populations and species.Similar radiation processes may apply to other montane floras in this region and elsewhere.

Yazhen Ma;Xingxing Mao;Ji Wang;Lei Zhang;Yuanzhong Jiang;Yuying Geng;Tao Ma;Liming Cai;Shuangquan Huang;Pete Hollingsworth;Kangshan Mao;Minghui Kang;Yiling Li;Wenlu Yang;Haolin Wu;Yang Chen;Charles C.Davis;Nawal Shrestha;Richard H.Ree;Zhenxiang Xi;Quanjun Hu;Richard I.Milne;Jianquan Liu

Key Laboratory for Bio-Resource and Eco-Environment of Ministry of Education,College of Life Sciences,Sichuan University,Chengdu 610065,China;State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystem,College of Ecology,Lanzhou University,Lanzhou 730000,China;Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Harvard University Herbaria,Harvard University,Cambridge,MA 02138,USA;Institute of Evolution and Ecology,School of Life Sciences,Central China Normal University,Wuhan 430079,China;Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh,Edinburgh EH3 5LR,UK;Negaunee Integrative Research Center,Field Museum,Chicago,IL 60605,USA;Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences,The University of Edinburgh,Edinburgh EH9 3JH,UK

国家科学评论（英文版）

[1]Yazhen Ma;Xingxing Mao;Ji Wang;Lei Zhang;Yuanzhong Jiang;Yuying Geng;Tao Ma;Liming Cai;Shuangquan Huang;Pete Hollingsworth;Kangshan Mao;Minghui Kang;Yiling Li;Wenlu Yang;Haolin Wu;Yang Chen;Charles C.Davis;Nawal Shrestha;Richard H.Ree;Zhenxiang Xi;Quanjun Hu;Richard I.Milne;Jianquan Liu-.Pervasive hybridization during evolutionary radiation of Rhododendron subgenus Hymenanthes in mountains of southwest China)[J].国家科学评论（英文版）,2022(12):44-54

Pervasive,Hymenanthes,Radiations

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