Phylogenetic Relationships among some Species of the Genus Hypericum (Hypericaceae) in Kurdistan-Rgeion Iraq

Abstract

Phylogenetic hypotheses for the large cosmopolitan genus Hypericum (St. John’s wort) have previously been based on morphology, and molecular studies have thus far included only a few species. In this study, we used Eight taxa representing 2 sections of the genus Hypericum were analyzed along with one representatives of Thornea calcicola using nuclear internal transcribed spacer ITS and 28SrRNA sequences in order to assess the scope of phylogenetic relationships in this species-rich genus. The resulting parsimony analysis and Bayesian Inference corroborates the actual classification and interspecific affinities. The molecular data provide support for the monophyletic assemblage of the sections in both ITS and 28SrRNA regions trees shows four different clades with minimum changes between species location in both tree. We used Maximum Parsimony and Bayesian approach to reconstruct ancestral states of selected characters, which resulted in recognition of characters that support major clades within the genus Hypericum. The obtained results encourage the use of ITS and 28SrRNA sequence analysis in resolving the phylogenetic relationships within the member rich genus Hypericum. Our results differ somewhat from those of recent morphological and cytological studies. The phylogenetic relationships among Hypericum species have now been mostly resolved via 28SrRNA phylogeny.