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Abstract
The bitter gourd genus Momordica comprises 47 species in Africa and 12 in Asia and
Australia. All have unisexual flowers, and of the African species, 24 are dioecious,
23 monoecious, while all Asian species are dioecious. Maximum likelihood analyses
of 6257 aligned nucleotides of plastid, mitochondrial and nuclear DNA obtained for
122 accessions of Momordica and seven outgroups show that Momordica is monophyletic
and consists of 11 well-supported clades. Monoecy evolved from dioecy seven times
independently, always in Africa and mostly in savanna species with low population
densities. Leaky dioecy, with occasional fruit-producing males, occurs in two African
species and might be the first step in an evolutionary transition towards monoecy.
Dated biogeographic analyses suggest that Momordica originated in tropical Africa
and that the Asian species are the result of one long-distance dispersal event about
19million years ago. The pantropical vegetable Momordica charantia is of African,
not Asian origin as had previously been suggested.
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