Chemical Fingerprinting of Cryptic Species and Genetic Lineages of Aneura pinguis (L.) Dumort. (Marchantiophyta, Metzgeriidae).

Rafał Wawrzyniak,Wiesław Wasiak,Katarzyna Buczkowska,Beata Jasiewicz,Alina Bączkiewicz

doi:10.3390/molecules26041180

Rafał Wawrzyniak, Wiesław Wasiak + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26041180

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Abstract

Aneura pinguis (L.) Dumort. is a representative of the simple thalloid liverworts, one of the three main types of liverwort gametophytes. According to classical taxonomy, A. pinguis represents one morphologically variable species; however, genetic data reveal that this species is a complex consisting of 10 cryptic species (named by letters from A to J), of which four are further subdivided into two or three evolutionary lineages. The objective of this work was to develop an efficient method for the characterisation of plant material using marker compounds. The volatile chemical constituents of cryptic species within the liverwort A. pinguis were analysed by GC-MS. The compounds were isolated from plant material using the HS-SPME technique. Of the 66 compounds examined, 40 were identified. Of these 40 compounds, nine were selected for use as marker compounds of individual cryptic species of A. pinguis. A guide was then developed that clarified how these markers could be used for the rapid identification of the genetic lineages of A. pinguis. Multivariate statistical analyses (principal component and cluster analysis) revealed that the chemical compounds in A. pinguis made it possible to distinguish individual cryptic species (including genetic lineages), with the exception of cryptic species G and H. The classification of samples based on the volatile compounds by cluster analysis reflected phylogenetic relationships between cryptic species and genetic lineages of A. pinguis revealed based on molecular data.

Highlights

The genus Aneura Dumort. (Metzgeriidae) is a representative of the liverworts, a phylum of small terrestrial plants that has played an important role in the evolution of early land plants
Thirty seven samples of A. pinguis belonging to seven different genetic lineages were subjected to chemical analyses
In the multivariate statistical analysis, results obtained in the present studies were compared with all remaining genetic lineages from previous research on A. pinguis [34,35]

Summary

Introduction

The genus Aneura Dumort. (Metzgeriidae) is a representative of the liverworts, a phylum of small terrestrial plants that has played an important role in the evolution of early land plants. (Metzgeriidae) is a representative of the liverworts, a phylum of small terrestrial plants that has played an important role in the evolution of early land plants. Liverworts are the source of a large number of biologically active compounds, such as terpenoids and aromatic compounds, synthesized and accumulated in oil bodies [6,7,8]. Many of these compounds occur only in liverworts and exhibit interesting biological activities [9,10,11,12,13,14]. Revealing differences in the composition of chemical compounds between closely related species is important for the identification of species and for the clarification of evolutionary relationships between them [19,21,22,23]

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