Phylogeny of Leontopodium (Asteraceae) in China—with a reference to plastid genome and nuclear ribosomal DNA

Frontiers in Plant Science

Plant Science

Yang Lu¹  Shi-Xin Zhu¹  Jun-Zhe Sun¹  Zhen-Long Wang¹  Zhen Wei¹  Xue-Min Xu¹  Qing-Fei Zhao¹ 

[1] School of Life Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China;

关键词: Leontopodium;    chloroplast genome;    genome structure;    nuclear ribosomal DNA;    phylogenetic analysis;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpls.2023.1163065

 received in 2023-02-10, accepted in 2023-07-10,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The infrageneric taxonomy system, species delimitation, and interspecies systematic relationships of Leontopodium remain controversial and complex. However, only a few studies have focused on the molecular phylogeny of this genus. In this study, the characteristics of 43 chloroplast genomes of Leontopodium and its closely related genera were analyzed. Phylogenetic relationships were inferred based on chloroplast genomes and nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA). Finally, together with the morphological characteristics, the relationships within Leontopodium were identified and discussed. The results showed that the chloroplast genomes of Filago, Gamochaeta, and Leontopodium were well-conserved in terms of gene number, gene order, and GC content. The most remarkable differences among the three genera were the length of the complete chloroplast genome, large single-copy region, small single-copy region, and inverted repeat region. In addition, the chloroplast genome structure of Leontopodium exhibited high consistency and was obviously different from that of Filago and Gamochaeta in some regions, such as matk, trnK (UUU)-rps16, petN-psbM, and trnE (UUC)-rpoB. All the phylogenetic trees indicated that Leontopodium was monophyletic. Except for the subgeneric level, our molecular phylogenetic results were inconsistent with the previous taxonomic system, which was based on morphological characteristics. Nevertheless, we found that the characteristics of the leaf base, stem types, and carpopodium base were phylogenetically correlated and may have potential value in the taxonomic study of Leontopodium. In the phylogenetic trees inferred using complete chloroplast genomes, the subgen. Leontopodium was divided into two clades (Clades 1 and 2), with most species in Clade 1 having herbaceous stems, amplexicaul, or sheathed leaves, and constricted carpopodium; most species in Clade 2 had woody stems, not amplexicaul and sheathed leaves, and not constricted carpopodium.

【 授权许可】

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Copyright © 2023 Xu, Wei, Sun, Zhao, Lu, Wang and Zhu