Abstract
To determine the evolutionary relationships among all members of the genus Atractylodes (Compositae, Cardueae), we conducted molecular phylogenetic analyses of one nuclear DNA (nrDNA) region (internal transcribed spacer, ITS) and one chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) region (intergenic spacer region of trnL-F). In ITS and ITS + trnL-F trees, all members of Atractylodes form a monophyletic clade. Atractylodes is a sister group of the Carlina and Atractylis branch. Atractylodes species were distributed among three clades: (1) A. carlinoides (located in the lowest base of the Atractylodes phylogenetic tree), (2) A. macrocephala, and (3) the A. lancea complex, including A. japonica, A. coreana, A. lancea, A. lancea subsp. luotianensis, and A. chinensis. The taxonomic controversy over the classification of species of Atractylodes is mainly concentrated in the A. lancea complex. In base on molecular results, the intraspecific division of Atractylodes lancea is not supported, and A. coreana should be treated as a synonym A. chinensis.
Highlights
IntroducitonAtractylodes is an important medicinal genus in East Asia. With over 2000 years of medicinal history, all of its species have been used as medicine except for A. carlinoides
The sequences characteristics and phylogenetic information generated by the chloroplast trnL-F, nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS), and the combined
The phylogenetic trees show that Atractylis and Carlina gathered into a clade, with higher bootstrap support rates (ITS + trnL-F: Maximum parsimony (MP)-BS/Maximum likelihood (ML)-BS/Bayesian Inference (BI)-PP = 98/96/1.00, Figure 1; ITS: MP-BS/ML-BS/BI-PP = 82/92/1.00, Figure S1; trnL-F: MP-BS/ML-BS/BI-PP = 83/95/1.00, Figure S2)
Summary
Atractylodes is an important medicinal genus in East Asia. With over 2000 years of medicinal history, all of its species have been used as medicine except for A. carlinoides. Atractylodes plants and other related genera should be clarified This genus was considered by some taxonomists as Atractylis prior to its establishment [3,4,5]. With further studies of numerous specimens and field observations, Atractylodes flowers were found to be either monoecious, as in A. macrocephala and A. carlinoides, or gynodioecious, as in A. lancea, A. japonica and A. coreana. Atractylodes lancea and A. japonica are gynodioecious, whereas A. macrocephala is monoecious [7,8], similar to Atractylis. As recorded in the “Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae”, the genus has five species, namely, Atractylodes macrocephala, A. lancea, A. carlinoides, A. japonica and A. coreana [10,11,12]. Studies on the genetic relationships among Atractylodes species are conducive to understanding the relationship among different taxa, thereby confirming the classification of plants in this taxon. The main purpose of the present study aims to establish a complete molecular systematic genetic relationship of Atractylodes (1) to ascertain the systematic relationship between Atractylodes and Atractylis (2) to determine the genetic relationship among the different taxa of Atractylodes
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