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What is Seseli diffusum? A comparative morphological and molecular appraisal of a critical species of the Umbelliferae

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Abstract

A comprehensive study of critical South Asian species Seseli diffusum (Umbelliferae—Apioideae—Apieae) was carried out to determine the most suitable taxonomic position of the species, based on morphology (carpoanatomy, micromorphology of the fruit indumentum and some vegetative characters) and molecular data from nrDNA ITS region sequencing. Comparison with certain other species of Seseli and several provisionally related Apieae genera showed a close affinity of S. diffusum to the genus Psammogeton and more distant relationships with some species of Trachyspermum, clearly polyphyletic genus. No species of Seseli, even in broad sense, was found to be closely related to S. diffusum. It was proposed to transfer this species into Psammogeton, while separating a new section, Pseudoseseli, within the latter.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the curators of B, BLAT, E, K, LE, M, MW and P herbaria for the use of their facilities and our friend Prof. Patricia M.Tilney (University of Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa) for valuable comments and careful linguistic correction of the text.

Funding

Taxonomical and morphological studies carried out by M.G. Pimenov, T.A. Ostroumova and E.A. Zakharova were funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 16-04-00525). The molecular analysis made by G.V. Degtjareva and T.H. Samigullin was funded by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 14-50-00029). SEM studies were performed at the User Facilities Centre of the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University with the financial support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

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  1. Botanical Garden, Biological Faculty, Moscow State University, Vorobjevy Gory, Moscow, Russia, 119234

    Michael Pimenov, Galina Degtjareva, Tatiana Ostroumova & Ekaterina Zakharova

  2. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, Vorobjevy Gory, Moscow, Russia, 119992

    Tahir Samigullin

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  1. Michael Pimenov
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Correspondence to Galina Degtjareva.

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Online Resource 1. List of taxa and GenBank accession numbers of DNA ITS sequences used in this study. For sequences generated in this study, voucher information is listed as follows: species name, geographic locality, collector and collector number (herbarium code).

Online Resource 2. Plant material used for scanning electron microscopy.

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Pimenov, M., Degtjareva, G., Ostroumova, T. et al. What is Seseli diffusum? A comparative morphological and molecular appraisal of a critical species of the Umbelliferae. Plant Syst Evol 305, 49–59 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-018-1550-z

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