engleski

Phylogenetic relationships among diploid members of genus Knautia (Dipsacaceae)

The genus Knautia L. (Dipsacaceae) comprises ca. 40–60 species and is distributed in western Eurasia and North Africa with highest species diversity in southern and southeastern Europe, especially the Alps and the Balkan Peninsula. Traditionally Knautia has always been known for its taxonomic complexity due to the widespread occurrence of polyploidy and the high incidence of recurrent hybridization, which blur species boundaries. The aim of this study was to provide insights into spatiotemporal diversification of the genus by assessing relationships among diploid accessions and to test previous infrageneric taxonomic hypotheses based on morphological and karyological traits. Here, using the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and the plastid petN(ycf6)-psbM region as well as the amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) we provide the first phylogeny of Knautia and its infrageneric circumscription. Our molecular data unambiguously support the monophyly of Knautia and the overall shallow structure in ITS and cpDNA data suggest the relatively young age of the genus. Furthermore the distribution of haplotype groups and the occurrence of the same haplotypes on large geographical scales imply recent and fast range expansion. Our results show that infrageneric classification and circumscription of traditional groups are not congruent with molecular data. In addition our work provides the basis for a future study of the origin of the polyploids and the overall phylogeny of the genus.

phylogeny; Knautia

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