, a new Australian species in

Abstract

Nicotiana is found predominantly in the Americas and Australia, but also has representatives in Africa and the Pacific Islands. All native Australian Nicotiana species belong to section Suaveolentes. The number of species in this section is uncertain and subject to revision. An example of this uncertainty is the taxonomic status of a South Australian Nicotiana accession colloquially termed 'Corunna'. Here, we report sequences for nuclear and plastid markers for N. sp. Corunna (D.E. Symon 17088) and accessions of two other Australian species, N. burbidgeae and N. benthamiana. Phylogenetic comparison of these sequences with those of other members of Nicotiana places all three taxa in N. section Suaveolentes and shows that 'Corunna' represents a distinct phylogenetic lineage in a well supported clade along with N. goodspeedii, N. maritima, N. amplexicaulis and N. suaveolentes. Phenetic analysis of floral characters also supports recognition of N. sp. Corunna (D.E.Symon 17088) as a distinct species, which we describe here as Nicotiana paulineana Newbigin & P.M.Waterh., sp. nov. The enlarged molecular dataset described here contributes to a better understanding of taxonomic relationships within the section.

Comparative metagenomics reveals expanded insights into intra- and interspecific variation among wild bee microbiomes

“…Although the degree to which such compounds might similarly affect Ceratina remains an open question, plant genus Nicotiana was accordingly detected among South Australian C. australensis significantly more than in Queensland. Notably, the distribution of several known Australian members of Nicotiana , including wild tobacco, overlaps closely with that of C. australensis in both South Australia and Victoria 61 .…”

A multi-omicNicotiana benthamianaresource for fundamental research and biotechnology

“…N. tabacum , an allotetraploid formed about 0.2-0.4 MYA 8,9 has 24 chromosome pairs (2n=4x=48) encoding ∼70,000 genes 32,33 . In the estimated 5-6MY since the hybridization event basal to the Australian Nicotiana clade, N. benthamiana has lost 5 chromosome pairs to give a genome of 2n=4x=38 4,5 (Figure 1A).…”

“…Like most Solanaceae, it has a basic chromosome number of 12, with haploid DNA content ranging from 1.37Gb to 6.27Gb 2 . Section Suaveolentes (nicely smelling), includes N. benthamiana and is the largest allotetraploid group in the genus (∼35 species) with chromosome numbers ranging from 15 of 24, diagnostic of an allotetraplodization event followed by chromosome loss 3,4,5 (Figure 1A). Almost all species in this section are indigenous to Australasia, which they apparently colonized during the Pliocene transition ∼5-6 MYA.…”

Comparative Chloroplast Genomes of Nicotiana Species (Solanaceae): Insights Into the Genetic Variation, Phylogenetic Relationship, and Polyploid Speciation

“…In comparison to other plants, Nicotiana species are, therefore, ideally positioned to take advantage of recent advances in speciation, biodiversity, and phytogeography (Aoki and Ito, 2000 ). Phylogenetic analysis among Nicotiana species, for evolutionary biological research, has been performed based on the internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS) (Komarnyts'kyi et al, 1998 ), chloroplast-expressed glutamine synthetase gene (ncpGS) (Clarkson et al, 2010 ), maturase K (matK) gene (Aoki and Ito, 2000 ; Bally et al, 2021 ), multiple chloroplast DNA regions (Clarkson et al, 2004 ), and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) of genomic DNA (Khan and Narayan, 2007 ). Results of molecular phylogenetic comparison have provided a greater understanding of the evolutionary processes underlying genome differentiation in Nicotiana and helped solve several unresolved problems in the evolution of this genus.…”