Taxonomy of the genus Malus Mill. (Rosaceae) with emphasis on the cultivated apple, Malus domestica Borkh.

Abstract.

 Twenty-nine Malus species, 12 M. domestica cultivars and representative outgroup taxa were chosen for sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer of nuclear ribosomal DNA and the matK region of the chloroplast genome, in order to develop an explicit phylogenetic hypothesis for the genus and identify potential germplasm donors to the domesticated apple, M. domestica. Maximum parsimony analysis generated nuclear and chloroplast cladograms that provide reasonable resolution of sub-generic groups, as recognised in classifications. All of the close relatives of M. domestica occur in a poorly resolved series Malus clade. Two matK duplications were found, one in series Malus and the other in most M. domestica cultivars and one Central Asian M. sieversii accession.