Towards resolving Lamiales relationships: insights from rapidly evolving chloroplast sequences.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In the large angiosperm order Lamiales, a diverse array of highly specialized life strategies such as carnivory, parasitism, epiphytism, and desiccation tolerance occur, and some lineages possess drastically accelerated DNA substitutional rates or miniaturized genomes. However, understanding the evolution of these phenomena in the order, and clarifying borders of and relationships among lamialean families, has been hindered by largely unresolved trees in the past.

Results

Our analysis of the rapidly evolving trnK/matK, trnL-F and rps16 chloroplast regions enabled us to infer more precise phylogenetic hypotheses for the Lamiales. Relationships among the nine first-branching families in the Lamiales tree are now resolved with very strong support. Subsequent to Ploco

SUBMITTER: Schaferhoff B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2992528 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature