Phylogeographic and population genetic screens of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) provide insights into seed-based gene flow in angiosperms, yet studies are frequently hampered by the low mutation rate of this genome. Detection methods for intraspecific variation can be either direct (DNA sequencing) or indirect (PCR-RFLP), although no single method incorporates the best features of both approaches. We...

BACKGROUND Despite the availability of several studies to clarify taxonomic problems on the highly threatened yews of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) and adjacent regions, the total number of species and their exact distribution ranges remains controversial. We explored the use of comprehensive sets of morphological, molecular and climatic data to clarify taxonomy and distributions of yews in thi...

Polygalaceae is a large family with cosmopolitan distribution, comprising ca. 1,200 species in 27 genera. However, similar to many plant groups, the identification of mostly depends on floral and fruit characteristics; therefore, DNA barcoding could easily warrant corect sterile material. In current study, utility six widely employed barcode loci, namely rbcL, matK, trnL-F region (including trn...

The group I intron interrupting the tRNALeu UAA gene (trnL) is present in most cyanobacterial genomes as well as in the plastids of many eukaryotic algae and all green plants. In lichen symbiotic Nostoc, the P6b stem-loop of trnL intron always involves one of two different repeat motifs, either Class I or Class II, both with unresolved evolutionary histories. Here we attempt to resolve the comp...

The present study describes the molecular authentication of 21 Korean Artemisia species using PCR-RFLP (polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism) technique based on the trnL-F sequences in chloroplast DNA. Five different banding patterns were generated from 21 Artemisia species using HinfI restriction enzyme. A. apiacea, A. keiskeana and A. sieversiana have specific ba...

Relationships within the subfamily Lobelioideae in Campanulaceae are inferred from DNA sequence variation in the rbcL and ndhF genes, and the trnL-F region including the trnL intron and the trnL-F intergenic spacer. Results derived from Bayesian and parsimony analyses provide evidence for the long-suspected paraphyly of the genus Lobelia, comprising over 400 species as presently circumscribed. ...

• A survey of chloroplast DNA variation in the circumarctic-alpine plant, Saxifraga oppositifolia , has resolved two highly divergent cpDNA lineages with geographically widespread and mainly allopatric distributions that are largely concordant with those of two subspecies, that is, subspp. oppositifolia and glandulisepala . These subspecies differ for a single morphological trait and hence leve...

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 t...