Systematic Botany and Mycology, University of Munich (LMU), Menzinger-Str. 67, D-80638 Munich, Germany.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2010 Feb;54(2):553-60. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2009.08.006. Epub 2009 Aug 15.
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.
苦瓜属 Momordica 包括非洲的 47 种和亚洲和澳大利亚的 12 种。所有物种均具有单性花，其中非洲物种中有 24 种是雌雄异株，23 种是雌雄同株，而所有亚洲物种均是雌雄异株。对 122 个苦瓜属和 7 个外群的 6257 个对齐核苷酸的最大似然分析表明，苦瓜属是单系的，由 11 个支持度高的分支组成。雌雄同株从雌雄异株独立进化了 7 次，总是发生在非洲，主要发生在人口密度低的热带稀树草原物种中。偶尔有果实产生的雄性的不完全雌雄同株发生在两个非洲物种中，可能是向雌雄同株进化的第一步。有时间分辨的生物地理分析表明，苦瓜属起源于热带非洲，亚洲物种是约 1900 万年前一次长距离扩散事件的结果。作为泛热带蔬菜的苦瓜是非洲起源，而不是之前所认为的亚洲起源。
