J Syst Evol ›› 2008, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (3): 315-321.DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1002.2008.08007

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Phylogeny of Dioscorea sect. Stenophora based on chloroplast matK, rbcL and trnL-F sequences

1Xing GAO, 2Yu-Ping ZHU, 1Bao-Cheng WU, 1Ya-Mei ZHAO, 2Jian-Qun CHEN*, 1Yue-Yu HANG*   

  1. 1(Institute of Botany, Jiangsu Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory for Plant Ex Situ Conservation, Nanjing 210014, China)

    2(Department of Biology, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China)
    hangyueyu@21cn.com (Hang Y-Y); chenjq@nju.edu.cn (Chen J-Q)
  • Received:2008-01-21 Published:2008-05-18

Abstract: Seventeen species, one subspecies and one variety of Dioscorea sect. Stenophora Uline were investigated for their phylogenetic relationships based on a sequence analysis of chloroplast matK and rbcL genes and trnL-F intergenic spacer by maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood methods. The results showed that: (a) sect. Stenophora was a strongly supported monophyletic group; (b) D. rockii, D. membranacea, D. banzhuana, and D. simulans formed a moderately supported monophyletic group, and D. prazeri was weakly supported to be sister to this group; (c) D. althaeoides and D. nipponica ssp. nipponica formed a moderately supported clade, and D. nipponica ssp. rosthornii was not a member of this clade; (d) D. zingiberensis and D. sinoparviflora showed a moderate to strong sister relationship; and (e) D. collettii var. hypoglauca and D. collettii var. collettii were sister to each other, but with only weak support.

Key words: chloroplast DNA sequence, Dioscorea sect. Stenophora, maximum likelihood, maximum parsimony, molecular phylogeny