Multiple ITS copies reveal extensive hybridization within Rheum (Polygonaceae), a genus that has undergone rapid radiation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

During adaptive radiation events, characters can arise multiple times due to parallel evolution, but transfer of traits through hybridization provides an alternative explanation for the same character appearing in apparently non-sister lineages. The signature of hybridization can be detected in incongruence between phylogenies derived from different markers, or from the presence of two divergent versions of a nuclear marker such as ITS within one individual.

Methodology/principal findings

In this study, we cloned and sequenced ITS regions for 30 species of the genus Rheum, and compared them with a cpDNA phylogeny. Seven species contained two divergent copies of ITS that resolved in different clades from one another in each case, indicating hybridization events too

SUBMITTER: Wan D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3937351 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature