Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2025
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster E33
Höfundar / Authors: Maonian Xu (1), Elín Soffía Ólafsdóttir (1)
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Iceland
Kynnir / Presenter: Maonian Xu
Species delimitation of the club moss genus Huperzia (Lycopodiaceae) has been a challenge for decades due to small morphological variations and limitations in DNA barcoding using nuclear genes by its heterosporous nature. In the Nordic region, it is still unclear whether "arctica", "appressa" and "selago" morphotypes should be regarded as distinct species, or subspecies under H. selago. The current study focused on Iceland Huperzia taxa, and aimed to circumscribe Icelandic Huperzia using morphology, DNA barcoding, polyploidy level and metabolomics. DNA barcoding using the rbcL locus and haplotype network analysis revealed three haplotypes in Iceland, while polyploidy level is more diverse, including triploid, tetraploid, pentaploid and hexaploid. Interestingly, the third haplotype with more genetic variations is only composed of pentaploid and hexaploid, while the first and second haplotypes were mixtures of triploid and tetraploid with few pentaploid in the second haplotype. Specimens belonging to the third haplotype have reflexed leaves with dark green color, usually found in shaded area with higher humidity, while the first and second haplotypes look smaller with more appressed leaves, appearing in relatively sunny area. Metabolomics data recognise three plastid haplotypes where each one forms a distinct cluster, but not for polyploids. Our DNA barcoding and chemistry data support the distinction of three taxa in Icelandic Huperzia, possibly as subspecies to each other.