Genetic Diversity in Cyatheaceae in a stressful changing climate: A Multi-Omics Review of Adaptive Evolution and Conservation

Tengmin Li^1*Hanqing Cong²Dandan Rao¹Erhuan Wu¹Yutong Cui¹Rongcun Gan¹Yu Chen^1*

• ¹Hainan Academy of Forestry, Haikou, China
• ²Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences Tropical Crops Genetic Resources Institute, Haikou, China

Cyatheaceae, assigned to the fern order Eufilicales, is one of the most ancient extant lineages of arborescent tree-ferns and is widely distributed across tropical, subtropical, and parts of the temperate Southern Hemisphere. This group is ecologically, scientifically, and medicinally valuable. It serves as a critical bioindicator of forest ecosystem stability, provides an ideal model system for investigating adaptive evolution and stress response mechanisms in plants, and produces secondary metabolites with promising pharmaceutical applications. Recent advances in modern molecular biology have markedly promoted omics-based research on the family. Here, we systematically review multi-omics achievements—genomics, transcriptomics, and related fields— with emphasis on how sequencing technologies and functional genes have elucidated genetic diversity, cryptic lineage divergence, and adaptive evolutionary mechanisms in response to biotic and abiotic stressors, including climate change, habitat fragmentation, and interspecific competition. We summarize current conservation applications, highlight core problems such as taxonomic and geographical sampling bias and insufficient multi-omics integration, and propose future research directions so as to provide a scientific basis for the systematic conservation, sustainable utilization, and in-depth study of the genetic resources of Cyatheaceae under increasing environmental pressures.