Hedysarum L. (Fabaceae: Hedysareae) Is Not Monophyletic - Evidence from Phylogenetic Analyses Based on Five Nuclear and Five Plastid Sequences

Pei-Liang Liu; Jun Wen; Lei Duan; Emine Arslan; Kuddisi Ertuğrul; Zhao-Yang Chang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0170596

Hedysarum L. (Fabaceae: Hedysareae) Is Not Monophyletic - Evidence from Phylogenetic Analyses Based on Five Nuclear and Five Plastid Sequences

PLoS One. 2017 Jan 25;12(1):e0170596. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170596. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Pei-Liang Liu¹, Jun Wen², Lei Duan³, Emine Arslan⁴, Kuddisi Ertuğrul⁴, Zhao-Yang Chang¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, China.
² Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., United States of America.
³ Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
⁴ Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Selçuk University, Konya, Turkey.

Abstract

The legume family (Fabaceae) exhibits a high level of species diversity and evolutionary success worldwide. Previous phylogenetic studies of the genus Hedysarum L. (Fabaceae: Hedysareae) showed that the nuclear and the plastid topologies might be incongruent, and the systematic position of the Hedysarum sect. Stracheya clade was uncertain. In this study, phylogenetic relationships of Hedysarum were investigated based on the nuclear ITS, ETS, PGDH, SQD1, TRPT and the plastid psbA-trnH, trnC-petN, trnL-trnF, trnS-trnG, petN-psbM sequences. Both nuclear and plastid data support two major lineages in Hedysarum: the Hedysarum s.s. clade and the Sartoria clade. In the nuclear tree, Hedysarum is biphyletic with the Hedysarum s.s. clade sister to the Corethrodendron + Eversmannia + Greuteria + Onobrychis clade (the CEGO clade), whereas the Sartoria clade is sister to the genus Taverniera DC. In the plastid tree, Hedysarum is monophyletic and sister to Taverniera. The incongruent position of the Hedysarum s.s. clade between the nuclear and plastid trees may be best explained by a chloroplast capture hypothesis via introgression. The Hedysarum sect. Stracheya clade is resolved as sister to the H. sect. Hedysarum clade in both nuclear and plastid trees, and our analyses support merging Stracheya into Hedysarum. Based on our new evidence from multiple sequences, Hedysarum is not monophyletic, and its generic delimitation needs to be reconsidered.

MeSH terms

Cell Nucleus / genetics
DNA, Chloroplast*
DNA, Plant
Evolution, Molecular*
Fabaceae / genetics*
Phylogeny*
Plastids*

Substances

DNA, Chloroplast
DNA, Plant

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (www.nsfc.gov.cn, grant numbers 30270106, 30870155, to ZYC) and China Scholarship Council (www.csc.edu.cn, grant number 201406300108, to PLL). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.