Nuclear and plastid haplotypes suggest rapid diploid and polyploid speciation in the N Hemisphere Achillea millefolium complex (Asteraceae).

ABSTRACT:

Background

Species complexes or aggregates consist of a set of closely related species often of different ploidy levels, whose relationships are difficult to reconstruct. The N Hemisphere Achillea millefolium aggregate exhibits complex morphological and genetic variation and a broad ecological amplitude. To understand its evolutionary history, we study sequence variation at two nuclear genes and three plastid loci across the natural distribution of this species complex and compare the patterns of such variations to the species tree inferred earlier from AFLP data.

Results

Among the diploid species of A. millefolium agg., gene trees of the two nuclear loci, ncpGS and SBP, and the combined plastid fragments are incongruent with each other and with the AFLP tree likely due to i

SUBMITTER: Guo YP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3269993 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature