Wen Jun, Quintanar Castillo Angélica, Pace Marcelo R, Talavera Alicia, Sparreo Luke, Johnson Gabriel, Krupnick Gary A, Nie Ze-Long
Smithsonian Institution, Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, United States.
Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico.
Front Plant Sci. 2025 May 19;16:1580648. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1580648. eCollection 2025.
Despite the tremendous economic significance of grapes, the systematics of the grape genus remains understudied. Based on recent fieldwork, phylogenomic analyses using both nuclear and plastid genomes, as well as morphological comparisons, we report a new grape subgenus, , endemic to Mexico. The new subgenus constitutes a clade that diverged early in the evolutionary history of , yet there is cytonuclear discordance in its position, suggesting hybridization is a likely mechanism in its origin. Subgenus contains two species, J. Wen from Chiapas and J. Wen from Jalisco, both new to science. In comparison to the two other subgenera of the grape genus (subgenus and subgenus ), is characterized by its red flowers and stems with prominent lenticels. The discovery of the third subgenus in , nearly a century after the recognition of the second subgenus, , in 1927, represents a major milestone in the systematic research of grapes and their wild relatives. We also use fieldwork and herbarium data to provide distribution maps and conservation assessments of and based on IUCN criteria. Both species are assessed to be critically endangered. These findings highlight Mexico as an important region for wild grape resources. The study also demonstrates that biodiversity discovery is far from complete today and that field exploration remains critical for biodiversity science and conservation. These newly discovered resources may benefit humanity, yet these species urgently need to be protected and properly managed due to extensive habitat loss and alteration.
尽管葡萄具有巨大的经济意义，但葡萄属的系统学研究仍相对不足。基于近期的野外工作、利用核基因组和质体基因组进行的系统基因组学分析以及形态学比较，我们报道了一个新的葡萄亚属，它是墨西哥特有的。这个新亚属构成了一个在葡萄进化历史早期就已分化的分支，但在其位置上存在细胞核与细胞质的不一致性，这表明杂交可能是其起源的一种机制。该亚属包含两个物种，来自恰帕斯州的J. Wen和来自哈利斯科州的J. Wen，这两个物种均为科学上新发现的。与葡萄属的其他两个亚属（亚属 和亚属 ）相比，该亚属的特征是其红色花朵和带有明显皮孔的茎。在1927年第二个亚属 被发现近一个世纪后，该亚属的发现是葡萄及其野生近缘种系统研究中的一个重要里程碑。我们还利用野外工作和标本馆数据，根据世界自然保护联盟（IUCN）的标准提供了该亚属两个物种的分布图和保护评估。这两个物种均被评估为极度濒危。这些发现凸显了墨西哥作为野生葡萄资源重要区域的地位。该研究还表明，如今生物多样性的发现远未完成，野外探索对生物多样性科学和保护仍然至关重要。这些新发现的资源可能造福人类，但由于广泛的栖息地丧失和改变，这些物种迫切需要得到保护和妥善管理。
