Abstract
The Caryophyllaceae family is complex. Several attempts have been carried out in the past to study Caryophyllaceae members. This study mainly focused on Allochrusa Bunge to determine its genetic structure and used ISSR markers, ITS, and rps16 data to classify and differentiate Allochrusa species. We collected 122 Allochrusa specimens. Our analysis included morphological and molecular method approaches. Morphometry analysis indicated that floral characters could assist in the identification of Allochrusa species. A. persica (Boiss.) Boiss. and A. versicolor Fisch. & C.A.Mey. showed affinity to each other. A. bungei Boiss. formed a separate group. Analysis of molecular variance showed significant genetic differentiation in Allochrusa (p= 0.001). The majority of genetic variation was among the Allochrusa population. We recorded minimum gene flow (Nm=0.176) between Allochrusa species. Besides this, isolation by distance occurs in Allochrusa members, as shown in the Mantel test result (r = 0.01, p = 0.0002). STRUCTURE analysis revealed three genetic groups. It is evident that A. persica, A. versicolor, and A. bungei differ genetically from each other. Our current findings have implications in plant systematics and biodiversity management.
Highlights
Caryophyllaceae contains 88 genera and 2,200 species
We carefully identified the plant species, i.e., Allochrusa versicolor, A. bungei, and A. persica according to previous identification protocols (Boissier 1867; Schischkin 1936; Cullen 1967; Schiman-Czeika 1988)
Overall first three components explained the majority of variation (74%) in Allochrusa species
Summary
Caryophyllaceae contains 88 genera and 2,200 species. The Caryophyllaceae family is subdivided into three subfamilies, ie. Allochrusa (Schischkin 1936) and molecular phylogenetic studies by Madhani et al (2018) corroborate the taxonomic treatment performed by Pirani et al (2014) and contradict the treatment by Hernandez-Ledesma et al (2015), where it was recognized provisionally at the generic level According to this concept, it is necessary to resurrect the generic name Acanthophyllum for some taxa treated as Allochrusa in recent taxonomic surveys (Madhani et al, 2018). It is necessary to resurrect the generic name Acanthophyllum for some taxa treated as Allochrusa in recent taxonomic surveys (Madhani et al, 2018) Morphological characters such as leaves, flower arrangement, or inflorescence are crucial characters to identify Allochrusa species (Boissier 1867; Schischkin 1936; Cullen 1967; Schiman-Czeika 1988). Our approach integrated morphological and molecular methods to analyze Allochrusa species
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