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Updated: Jun 1, 2026

A Concoction Pipeline for Generating Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs) Among Riparian and Aquatic Beetles

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Intercontinental Mediterranean disjunct mosses: morphological and molecular patterns.

A Jonathan Shaw¹, Olaf Werner, Rosa M Ros

¹Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708 USA;

American Journal of Botany

|June 11, 2011

Summary

Disjunct plant species show little morphological difference but molecular data reveal phylogeographic structure. Recent long-distance dispersal, not ancient divergence, likely explains their distribution across continents.

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Area of Science:

Botany
Evolutionary Biology
Biogeography

Background:

Investigates species with disjunct distributions between western North America and the Mediterranean region.
Examines the Madrean-Tethyan distribution pattern, a biogeographical phenomenon.

Purpose of the Study:

To assess phenotypic and molecular differentiation in three species with disjunct populations.
To compare morphological similarity with molecular diversity to understand phylogeographic structure.
To test the Madrean-Tethyan hypothesis regarding ancient divergence times.

Main Methods:

Quantitative morphological character analysis of New and Old World plant populations.
DNA sequencing of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region.
Phylogeographic analysis to infer population structure and diversity.

Main Results:

Minimal morphological differentiation observed between disjunct populations.
Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences revealed phylogeographic structure, incongruent with morphology.
New World populations exhibited greater molecular variability than Old World populations.

Conclusions:

Morphological similarity does not reflect the molecular phylogeographic structure in these species.
Recent long-distance dispersal is a more probable explanation for the intercontinental disjunctions than ancient divergence.
The Madrean-Tethyan hypothesis of divergence ≥20 million years ago is not supported by the data.