| Abstract Detail
Recent Topics Posters Miller, Jill S. [1], Kamath, Ambika [1], Levin, Rachel A. [1]. Comparison of Nine Noncoding Chloroplast Regions for Phylogenetic Inference at the Infrageneric Level. The development of chloroplast DNA markers to infer evolutionary relationships among closely related species and populations is an important challenge in plant molecular systematics. This is especially true given the slow rate of evolution of many of the plastid regions commonly used in phylogenetic studies. In this study, we examine the utility of several cpDNA regions for phylogenetic inference at low taxonomic levels. The regions employed here provided considerable numbers of potentially informative characters in previous large scale investigations of chloroplast sequence variation. We sequenced nine noncoding cpDNA regions (~ 8400 bp) for a diverse sample of species in tribe Lycieae (Lycium and the monotypic Phrodus microphyllus; Solanaceae), as well as two near outgroups in Nolana. The nine cpDNA regions varied with regard to their phylogenetic utility, as measured by the numbers of variable and parsimony informative characters and informative insertions/deletions. We advocate a combination of three regions—trnDGUC–trnTGGU, rpl32–trnLUAG, and ndhF–rpl32—for phylogenetic studies at the infrageneric or tribal level. Collectively, these three cpDNA regions had >100 variable characters, with 72 parsimony informative characters, and 13 phylogenetically informative indels. The majority of species sequenced had unique chloroplast sequences for the three region data set, the only exception being a few very closely related African species. Future studies should explore these three noncoding markers to answer low level phylogenetic questions in other groups across angiosperms.
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1 - Amherst College, Department of Biology, Mcguire Life Sciences Building, Amherst, Massachusetts, 01002, USA
Keywords:
cpDNA
Lycieae
Lycium
molecular systematics
noncoding chloroplast DNA
phylogeny
Solanaceae.
Presentation Type: Recent Topics Poster
Session: P
Location: Ball Room & Party Room/SUB
Date: Monday, July 28th, 2008
Time: 12:30 PM
Number: PRT010
Abstract ID:1117 |
