Common monkeyflower

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Common monkey-flower

• Order Lamiales
• Family currently Phrymaceae (see more on
  taxonomy below)
• Annual or perennial, 30-50 cm in height
• Preferred habitat banks of streams and rivers
• Native to North America. Originally brought as a
  decorative plant to Europe via Scotland in the
  19th century 1, it can now also be found as a
  part of wild flora
• Propagation is possible both by seeds
  (pollination by insects) and rhizome cuttings
• Study conducted with M. primuloides populations
  growing in different altitudes in California
  revealed less successful inflorescences to be
  produced and seedlings to be mostly non-viable in
  greater altitude as rhizomes take over the major
  procreation role 2
• No published reports of micropropagation,
  in-vitro culture or genetic transformation (as of
  July 2009)

Mimulus guttatus plants grown for the rhizome
project (June 2009)
1 http//de.wikipedia.org/Gauklerblumen 2
Douglas 1981
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Taxonomy

• Historically a Scrophulariaceae, the genus was
  moved to the family of Phrymaceae on the basis of
  chloroplast and nucleus DNA sequences 1-3
• Mimulus is the largest genus (gt120 species) in
  the family. It is not monophyletic, at least 6
  other genera have evolved from within it 2
• These species are organized in complexes with
  differing habits M. guttatus complex are
  small herbs, M. cardinalis compex are shrub-like
  perennials. It is not unlikely the genus will be
  split into several genera as data comes in

outgroups
Max. likelihood tree of the studied Phrymaceae
species demonstrates several interrelated
genera/species still need to be untwined, as
several nodes (marked with are only weakly
supported 1
1 Olmstead et al. (2001) 2 Beardsley
Olmstead (2002) 3 Beardsley Barker (2005)
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Occurrence

• The genus Mimulus is cosmopolitan
• Some 90 monkeyflower species identified in the
  US and Canada
• Various species exhibit differing climate
  adaptation. For instance, whereas M. guttatus is
  mostly found on the West coast, M. glabratus and
  M. ringens grow across the continent, and M.
  alatus occurs in the Southeast of the US
• Studies with selected hybrids indicate adaptation
  to one habitat may entail loss of features
  essential for survival under contrasting
  conditions, explaining in part region limitations
  1. Nearly complete reproductive isolation of M.
  lewisii from M. cardinalis is believed to be
  engendered by ecogeographic speciation 2,
  however, the role of post- and prezygotic
  barriers still needs to be studied in depth
• Numerous taxa endemic to California
• Several species listed as endangered (visit
  plants.usda.gov)

Maps of Mimulus spec. (below) and specifically M.
guttatus (above) occurrence in North America.
(http//plants.usda.gov ) 1 Angert et al.
(2008) 2 Ramsey et al. (2003)
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Mimulus as a model plant

• Features that make the genus Mimulus a suitable
  model plant are e.g. reviewed in 1
• Comparatively small genome of ca. 430 MBp
• Abundant ecological and evolutionary studies
• High genetic diversity, placement in the plant
  kingdom
• Interspecific crossing barriers high to almost
  inexistent
• Short generation time
• Easy propagation and cross-pollination
• Developing resource sites
• M. guttatus and M. cardinalis http//www.mimuluse
  volution.org
• Genome sequencing project (NCBI project ID 13880)
  carried out at DOE Joint Genome Institute

1 Wu et al. (2008)
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Pollination studies

• Investigation of traits decisive for pollinator
  visitations on hybrids of M. lewisii and M.
  cardinalis, resp., indicates the flower
  anthocyanin content and nectar production to be
  essential for insect discouragement and
  hummingbird attraction 1,2
• One major allele shift (flower color, dependent
  on carotenoid content) seems to be responsible
  for the change in pollinator preference 3
• Similar floral traits appear to influence the
  pollinator preference in Mimulus section
  Erythranthe 4
• Interestingly, similar floral coloration
  (anthocyanin presence in petals) of Chilean
  Mimulus species might have evolved independently
  by three different genetic pathways 5

Near isogenic lines (full siblings) of M. lewisii
with alternate alleles in the YUP (yellow upper)
locus. Pink wild-type flower (left) attracted
mostly bumblebees, orange mutants received
dramatically reduced number of insect visitations
whereas hummingbird visitation was ca. 70x
increased in comparison to wild type 3
1 Bradshaw et al. (1995) 2 Schemske
Bradshaw (1999) 3 Bradshaw Schemske (2003)
4 Beardsley et al. (2003) 5 Cooley Willis
(2009)
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Adaptation salt and copper tolerance

• Ecological studies on morphologically and
  genetically divergent sister species of M.
  guttatus (inland annuals and coastal perennials)
• Almost complete reproductive isolation of these
  adapted populations is due to strong selection
  against immigrants at respective foreign habitat
  and differences in flowering time rather than
  postzygotic isolation 1
• NaCl tolerance and high salt accumulation
  observed in coastal perennial M. guttatus are
  effected by three and two QTLs, resp., which
  dont have affect the in-field fitness under
  low-salt conditions 2
• Copper-tolerant M. guttatus and recently evolved
  M. cupriphilis colonies found around copper mines
  3. There is data suggesting the tolerance
  mechanism relies on changes in cell membrane
  permeability rather than phytochelatins 4
• Cost of tolerance refers to their low fitness on
  uncontaminated soil 5. This appears not to be a
  consequence of decreased total metal uptake,
  resulting in micronutrient deficiency 6

1 Lowry et al. (2008) 2 Lowry et al. (2009)
3 Macnair 1989 4 Strange Macnair (1991) 5
Macnair 1981 6 Harper et al. (1997)
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Medicinal use

• Mimulus is one of the 38 main plants employed in
  Bach flower remedies (alternative psychosomatic
  healing philosophy founded by Dr. Edward Bach
  (1886-1936) which regards a disease as a result
  of disharmony between a persons mind and soul,
  and mental discomfort as a cause of physical
  disease. The flower remedies are supposed to
  restore personalitys integrity and peace of
  mind, thus preventing bodily sickness)
• Mimulus is indicated when suffering a fear of
  known things

Images www.bachcentre.com
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Phytochemistry

• Almost exclusively floral constituents of Mimulus
  spec. isolated, several studies on distribution
  pattern (spots of two-colored leaves) 1
• Mostly pigments subject of study (carotenoids,
  xanthins, anthocyanins, malonylated flavonoids)
  2-4
• Herbacetin (8-OH kaempferol) 7-O-glucoside
• Geranylated flavonoids 5 and a geranylated
  a-pyrone isolated from leaf surface resin of M.
  aurantiacus 6
• No reports on the phytochemistry of rhizomes

6-geranylated flavonoids (R1-3 OH or OCH3)
isolated from M. clevelandii 5
Structure of the geranylated a-pyrone from M.
aurantiacus 6
1 Bloom Vickery (1973) 2 Ferro et al.
(1972) 3 Nitsche 1972 4 Goodwin Thomas
(1964) 5 Philipps et al. (1996) 6 Hare
Borchardt (2002)