Can phylogeny predict chemical diversity and potential medicinal activity of plants? A case study of Amaryllidaceae.

ABSTRACT:

Background

During evolution, plants and other organisms have developed a diversity of chemical defences, leading to the evolution of various groups of specialized metabolites selected for their endogenous biological function. A correlation between phylogeny and biosynthetic pathways could offer a predictive approach enabling more efficient selection of plants for the development of traditional medicine and lead discovery. However, this relationship has rarely been rigorously tested and the potential predictive power is consequently unknown.

Results

We produced a phylogenetic hypothesis for the medicinally important plant subfamily Amaryllidoideae (Amaryllidaceae) based on parsimony and Bayesian analysis of nuclear, plastid, and mitochondrial DNA sequences of over 100 species

SUBMITTER: Ronsted N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3499480 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature