An Investigation of the Generic Relationships of the Flowering Plant Family Sarraceniaceae (Ericales)

Download or read book An Investigation of the Generic Relationships of the Flowering Plant Family Sarraceniaceae (Ericales) written by Emily Jean Hicks and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The flowering plant family Sarraceniaceae contains three genera: the North American Sarracenia (11 species) and monotypic Darlingtonia, and the South American Heliamphora (16 species). A relative paucity of informative morphological characters has rendered efforts at resolving evolutionary relationships in the group problematic. Prior efforts by others involving molecular data involved the nuclear ITS region and the plastid rbcL gene, with some conflicting results. I am utilizing a different molecular data set in an effort to resolve the evolutionary relationships among the three genera and to provide insights into the possible biogeographic origin of the group (i.e. either western North America, the southeastern United States, or South America.) Three loci have been successfully amplified through the PCR from genomic DNA samples of Darlingtonia californica, four Heliamphora species, six Sarracenia species, and one sample of the outgroup Roridula (Roridulaceae). The data set consists of the entire matR (1700 bp) and matK (1900 bp) genes, and approximately 95% of the 26S rRNA gene (3000 bp). Separate phylogenetic analyses, utilizing Maximum Likelihood, supported the status of Darlingtonia as being closest to the ancestral state for the family, with Sarracenia and Heliamphora forming a separate clade. Outgroup topologies and species resolution in Heliamphora was consistent with all three molecular markers. Sarracenia species resolution was poor, with incongruence among the different phylogenetic analyses.