Chloroplast and ITS phylogenies to understand the evolutionary history of southern South American Azorella, Laretia and Mulinum (Azorelloideae, Apiaceae).

Azorella, Laretia and Mulinum are taxonomically complex, and good candidates to study evolutionary radiations in the Andes and the importance of hybridizations. Previous phylogenetic studies of subfamily Azorelloideae agree that Azorella and Mulinum as currently conceived are not monophyletic, and hence a revision of their circumscription is necessary. However, these phylogenies were based only on chloroplast DNA sequence data.

Evolution of morphological traits in Verbenaceae.

Premise Of The Study: A new infrafamilial circumscription of the Verbenaceae with eight tribes: Casselieae, Citharexyleae, Duranteae, Lantaneae, Neospartoneae, Petreeae, Priveae, and Verbeneae, has been recently proposed, on the basis of molecular phylogenetic studies. Two genera, Dipyrena and Rhaphithamnus, remain unplaced. The aim of this work is to reconstruct the evolutionary history of morphological characters traditionally employed in the classification of the Verbenaceae, with special attention to tribes Verbeneae and Lantaneae.

Morphology and biogeography of Apiaceae subfamily Saniculoideae as inferred by phylogenetic analysis of molecular data.

The phylogenetic placements of several African endemic genera at the base of Apiaceae subfamilies Saniculoideae and Apioideae have revolutionized ideas of relationships that affect hypotheses of character evolution and biogeography. Using an explicit phylogeny of subfamily Saniculoideae, we reconstructed the evolutionary history of phenotypic characters traditionally important in classification, identified those characters most useful in supporting relationships, and inferred historical biogeography. The 23 characters examined include those of life history, vegetative morphology, inflorescences, and fruit morphology and anatomy.

The evolutionary history of Eryngium (Apiaceae, Saniculoideae): rapid radiations, long distance dispersals, and hybridizations.

Eryngium is the largest and arguably the most taxonomically complex genus in the family Apiaceae. Infrageneric relationships within Eryngium were inferred using sequence data from the chloroplast DNA trnQ-trnK 5'-exon and nuclear ribosomal DNA ITS regions to test previous hypotheses of subgeneric relationships, explain distribution patterns, reconstruct ancestral morphological features, and elucidate the evolutionary processes that gave rise to this speciose genus. In total, 157 accessions representing 118 species of Eryngium, 15 species of Sanicula (including the genus Hacquetia that was recently reduced to synonymy) and the monotypic Petagnaea were analyzed using maximum parsimony and Bayesian methods.

Circumscription and phylogeny of Apiaceae subfamily Saniculoideae based on chloroplast DNA sequences.

An estimate of phylogenetic relationships within Apiaceae subfamily Saniculoideae was inferred using data from the chloroplast DNA trnQ-trnK 5'-exon region to clarify the circumscription of the subfamily and to assess the monophyly of its constituent genera. Ninety-one accessions representing 14 genera and 82 species of Apiaceae were examined, including the genera Steganotaenia, Polemanniopsis, and Lichtensteinia which have been traditionally treated in subfamily Apioideae but determined in recent studies to be more closely related to or included within subfamily Saniculoideae. The trnQ-trnK 5'-exon region includes two intergenic spacers heretofore underutilized in molecular systematic studies and the rps16 intron.

A molecular phylogenetic study of southern African Apiaceae.

It has been suggested that southern Africa is the origin of the predominantly herbaceous Apiaceae subfamily Apioideae and that the woody habit is plesiomorphic. We expand previous molecular phylogenetic analyses of the family by considering all but three of the approximately 38 genera native to southern Africa, including all genera whose members, save one, have a woody habit. Representatives of five other genera are included because they may be closely related to these southern African taxa.

Further cytogenetical studies on diploid and polyploid species of Eryngium L. (Saniculoideae, Apiaceae) from Argentina.

Meiotic studies are carried out in 7 species of Eryngium L. (Saniculoideae, Apiaceae), belonging to both sections Foetida and Panniculata. The chromosome number of E.