Multiple late-Pleistocene colonisation events of the Antarctic pearlwort Colobanthus quitensis (Caryophyllaceae) reveal the recent arrival of native Antarctic vascular flora

Aim: Antarctica’s remote and extreme terrestrial environments are inhabited by only two species of native vascular plants. We assessed genetic connectivity amongst Antarctic and South American populations of one of these species, Colobanthus quitensis, to determine its origin and age in Antarctica. 

Location: Maritime Antarctic, sub-Antarctic islands, South America

Taxon: Antarctic pearlwort Colobanthus quitensis (Caryophyllaceae)

Methods: Four chloroplast markers and one nuclear marker were sequenced from 270 samples from a latitudinal transect spanning 21–68° S. Phylogeographic, population genetic and molecular dating analyses were used to assess the demographic history of C. quitensis and the age of the species in Antarctica.

Results: Maritime Antarctic populations consisted of two different haplotype clusters, occupying the northern and southern Maritime Antarctic. Molecular dating analyses suggested C. quitensis to be a young (<1 Myr) species, with contemporary popul...