Molecular phylogenetics of Meliaceae (Sapindales) based on nuclear and plastid DNA sequences

Abstract

Phylogenetic analyses of Meliaceae, including representatives of all four currently recognized subfamilies and all but two tribes (32 genera and 35 species, respectively), were carried out using DNA sequence data from three regions: plastid genes rbcL, matK (partial), and nuclear 26S rDNA (partial). Individual and combined phylogenetic analyses were performed for the rbcL, matK, and 26S rDNA data sets. Although the percentage of informative characters is highest in the segment of matK sequenced, rbcL provides the greatest number of informative characters of the three regions, resulting in the best resolved trees. Results of parsimony analyses support the recognition of only two subfamilies (Melioideae and Swietenioideae), which are sister groups. Melieae are the only tribe recognized previously that are strongly supported as monophyletic. The members of the two small monogeneric subfamilies, Quivisianthe and Capuronianthus, fall within Melioideae and Swietenioideae, respectively, supporting their taxonomic inclusion in these groups. Furthermore, the data indicate a close relationship between Aglaieae and Guareeae and a possible monophyletic origin of Cedreleae of Swietenioideae. For Trichilieae (Melioideae) and Swietenieae (Swietenioideae) lack of monophyly is indicated.

Genetic diversity and geographic structure in Aglaia elaeagnoidea (Meliaceae, Sapindales), a morphologically complex tree species, near the two extremes of its distribution

“…1), and four accessions of Cedreloideae as outgroup taxa (Table 1). Broadscale intrafamilial phylogenetic relationships of Meliaceae were previously assessed using DNA sequence data from three regions: plastid genes rbcL, matK, and nuclear 26S rDNA (Muellner et al 2003(Muellner et al , 2006. Phylogenetic relationships within Melioideae have recently been assessed using nuclear ribosomal DNA sequence data (Muellner et al 2008b).…”

“…The DNA data are compared to chemical profiles of the respective specimens to investigate if phylogenetic relationships are reflected by biogenetic trends. The ITS region was the DNA marker of choice since previous analyses of plastid rbcL, matK, and nuclear 26S rDNA did not provide sufficient phylogenetic information for Melioideae (compare Muellner et al 2003Muellner et al , 2006, and screening with other plastid markers (e.g. rps16 intron, IGS atpB-rbcL, trnL intron and IGS trnL-trnF) did not exhibit a sufficient amount of informative sites.…”

Phylogenetic position and taxonomic disposition of Turraea breviflora (Meliaceae), a hitherto enigmatic species

“…RbcL sequences of 44 taxa of Meliaceae (ingroup) and 6 other taxa (outgroup) were available from the first author's previous work on Meliaceae (Muellner et al 2003(Muellner et al , 2006. Our rbcL matrix includes representatives of all tribes (Pennington & Styles 1975) of the only two currently recognised subfamilies (Muellner et al 2003): Melioideae, viz. Turraeeae, Melieae, Vavaeeae, Trichilieae, Aglaieae, Guareeae, and Sandoriceae, and cedreloideae (Swietenioideae), viz.…”

Molecular phylogeny, divergence time estimates, and historical biogeography of Circaea (Onagraceae) in the Northern Hemisphere

“…Therefore we combined the two data sets to explore whether resolution and support would be improved by increasing the amount of sequencing data. This approach was performed by direct inspection of nodes with bootstrap scores above 70% in the separate analyses (Kluge, 1989;Nixon and Carpenter, 1996;Muellner et al, 2003;Acevedo-Rosas et al, 2004;Berry et al, 2004;Inda et al, 2008). Phylogenetic analyses were undertaken for the nrITS, for the concatenated plastid data set, and for all molecular markers combined using maximum parsimony (MP) and Bayesian inference (BI) methods (Rannala and Yang, 1996).…”