Molecular Phylogenetics and Taxonomy of Myrtaceae

The Myrtaceae, one of the largest families of woody flowering plants, encompasses over 5 500 species distributed across Southern Hemisphere continents and islands. Traditional taxonomy based on floral and vegetative morphology has long been challenged by extensive convergence, hybridisation and introgression, leading to unresolved species boundaries and genus delimitations. Advances in molecular phylogenetics have provided multilocus datasets—combining plastid, mitochondrial and nuclear markers—that reveal deep splits among tribes (for example, Myrteae, Syzygieae and Eucalypteae) and clarify relationships within hyper-diverse genera such as Eugenia, Syzygium and Psidium. High-throughput methods, including target enrichment sequencing (Hyb-Seq) and full plastome assemblies, have markedly increased resolution at both shallow and deep nodes, exposing cases of discordance between organellar and nuclear trees. Coalescent-based frameworks and concordance factor analyses now permit the disentanglement of true speciation signals from stochastic gene tree variation, informing a more robust infra- and intergeneric classification. Molecular insights are driving formal taxonomic revisions, guiding species delimitation and informing conservation priorities, especially in biodiversity hotspots where endemism and anthropic pressures converge. The integration of genomic resources with traditional systematics offers a comprehensive platform for understanding evolutionary history, biogeographical patterns and the practical implications of Myrtaceae diversity for forestry, horticulture and ecosystem management.

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Molecular Phylogenetics and Taxonomy of Myrtaceae publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in molecular phylogenetics and taxonomy of myrtaceae across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Molecular phylogenetics: inference of evolutionary relationships using DNA or protein sequence data.

Hyb-Seq: hybridisation capture followed by high-throughput sequencing to target hundreds of nuclear loci.

Plastome: the complete chloroplast genome, typically used for organellar phylogenetic analysis.

Multi-species coalescent: a statistical framework modelling discordance among gene trees within a shared species tree.

Concordance factor: the proportion of gene trees or sites supporting a particular branch in a species tree.

References

1. Phylogenetic Relationships Within the Hyper-Diverse Genus Eugenia (Myrtaceae: Myrteae) Based on Target Enrichment Sequencing. Frontiers in Plant Science (2022).
2. Comparative analysis of the complete chloroplast genomes from six Neotropical species of Myrteae (Myrtaceae). Genetics and Molecular Biology (2020).
3. Perspectives in Myrtaceae evolution from plastomes and nuclear phylogenies. Genetics and Molecular Biology (2022).