Molecular phylogenetics of suborder Cactineae (Caryophyllales), including insights into photosynthetic diversification and historical biogeography

Abstract

Although the C(3) pathway is inferred as the ancestral state in Cactineae, some CAM activity has been reported in the literature in almost every family of the suborder, leaving open the possibility that CAM may have one origin in the group. Incongruence among loci could be due to internal short branches, which possibly represent rapid radiations in response to increasing aridity in the Miocene.