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Chloroplast DNA and isozyme evidence on the evolution ofSenecio vulgaris (Asteraceae)

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Abstract

Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) and isozyme variation were analyzed over a range of populations of two infraspecific taxa of the tetraploidSenecio vulgaris. The isozyme data were supportive of the hypothesis that the weedy and cosmopolitanS. vulgaris var.vulgaris is an evolutionary derivative ofS. vulgaris subsp.denticulatus from the coasts of W Europe and montane altitudes in S Spain and Sicily. The two taxa exhibited a very high genetic identity with subsp.denticulatus containing slightly more isozyme diversity than was found in var.vulgaris. — Three cpDNA haplotypes (A, B, C) already known from other Mediterranean diploid species ofSenecio were resolved in var.vulgaris, and an additional fourth haplotype (E) was found in subsp.denticulatus. Two alternative hypotheses were chosen to account for the origin and maintenance of the observed cpDNA composition ofS. vulgaris. It either reflects (1) the retention of an ancestral polymorphism which stems from the recurrent and polytopic formation of ancestral tetraploid lineages; or (2)S. vulgaris originally was characterized by haplotype E, and haplotypes A, B and C were acquired through repeated introgressive hybridization with related diploid species. The finding that very low levels of nuclear (isozyme) diversity were present in both taxa ofS. vulgaris examined supports the second of these two hypotheses; however, more detailed analysis of nuclear genetic diversity is required before a firm conclusion can be reached on this matter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological and Medical Sciences, University of St. Andrews, KY16 9TH, St. Andrews, Fife, United Kingdom

    Hans Peter Comes & Richard J. Abbott

  2. Institut für Spezielle Botanik und Botanischer Garten, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, D-55099, Mainz, Germany

    Joachim W. Kadereit & Andreas Pohl

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  1. Hans Peter Comes
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  2. Joachim W. Kadereit
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  3. Andreas Pohl
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  4. Richard J. Abbott
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Dedicated to emer. Univ.-Prof. DrFriedrich Ehrendorfer on the occasion of his 70th birthday

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Comes, H.P., Kadereit, J.W., Pohl, A. et al. Chloroplast DNA and isozyme evidence on the evolution ofSenecio vulgaris (Asteraceae). Pl Syst Evol 206, 375–392 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00987958

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