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Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci

Title:		The evolution and loss of oil-offering flowers: new insights from dated phylogenies for angiosperms and bees
Author(s):		Renner SS; Schaefer H;
Address:		"Systematic Botany and Mycology, University of Munich, Menzinger Street 67, 80638 Munich, Germany"
Journal Title:		Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
Year:		2010
Volume:		365
Issue:		1539
Page Number:		423 - 435
DOI:		10.1098/rstb.2009.0229
ISSN/ISBN:		1471-2970 (Electronic) 0962-8436 (Print) 0962-8436 (Linking)
Abstract:		"The interactions between bees that depend on floral oil for their larvae and flowers that offer oil involve an intricate mix of obligate and facultative mutualisms. Using recent phylogenies, new data on oil-offering Cucurbitaceae, and molecular-dating, we ask when and how often oil-offering flowers and oil-foraging bees evolved, and how frequently these traits were lost in the cause of evolution. Local phylogenies and an angiosperm-wide tree show that oil flowers evolved at least 28 times and that floral oil was lost at least 36-40 times. The oldest oil flower systems evolved shortly after the K/T boundary independently in American Malpighiaceae, tropical African Cucurbitaceae and Laurasian Lysimachia (Myrsinaceae); the ages of the South African oil flower/oil bee systems are less clear. Youngest oil flower clades include Calceolaria (Calceolariaceae), Iridaceae, Krameria (Krameriaceae) and numerous Orchidaceae, many just a few million years old. In bees, oil foraging evolved minimally seven times and dates back to at least 56 Ma (Ctenoplectra) and 53 Ma (Macropis). The co-occurrence of older and younger oil-offering clades in three of the four geographical regions (but not the Holarctic) implies that oil-foraging bees acquired additional oil hosts over evolutionary time. Such niche-broadening probably started with exploratory visits to flowers resembling oil hosts in scent or colour, as suggested by several cases of Muellerian or Batesian mimicry involving oil flowers"
Keywords:		"Animals Base Sequence Bees/*physiology DNA, Plant/chemistry/genetics *Evolution, Molecular Flowers/genetics/*physiology Magnoliopsida/genetics/*physiology Molecular Sequence Data Phylogeny Pollination/*physiology Polymerase Chain Reaction Ribulose-Bisphos;"
Notes:		"MedlineRenner, S S Schaefer, H eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2010/01/06 Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2010 Feb 12; 365(1539):423-35. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0229"