BACKGROUND The trnH-psbA intergenic spacer region has been used in many DNA barcoding studies. However, a comprehensive evaluation with rigorous sequence preprocessing and statistical testing on the utility of trnH-psbA and its combinations as DNA barcodes is lacking. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Sequences were searched from GenBank for a meta-analysis on the usefulness of trnH-psbA and its...

Though considerable progress has been made in inferring phylogenetic relationships of many plant lineages, deep unresolved nodes remain a common problem that can impact downstream efforts, including taxonomic decision-making and character reconstruction. The Core Goodeniaceae is a group affected by this issue: data from the plastid regions trnL-trnF and matK have been insufficient to generate a...

Phylogenetic relationships in the tribe Millettieae and allies in the subfamily Papilionoideae (Leguminosae) were reconstructed from chloroplast trnK/matK sequences. Sixty-two accessions representing 57 traditionally recognized genera of Papilionoideae were sampled, including 27 samples from Millettieae. Phylogenies were constructed using maximum parsimony and are well resolved and supported by...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Laeliinae are a neotropical orchid subtribe with approx. 1500 species in 50 genera. In this study, an attempt is made to assess generic alliances based on molecular phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequence data. METHODS Six DNA datasets were gathered: plastid trnL intron, trnL-F spacer, matK gene and trnK introns upstream and dowstream from matK and nuclear ITS rDNA. Data wer...

BACKGROUND Large-scale plant diversity inventories are critical to develop informed conservation strategies. However, the workload required for classic taxonomic surveys remains high and is particularly problematic for megadiverse tropical forests. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Based on a comprehensive census of all trees in two hectares of a tropical forest in French Guiana, we examined whe...

Melilotus, an annual or biennial herb, belongs to the tribe Trifolieae (Leguminosae) and consists of 19 species. As an important green manure crop, diverse Melilotus species have different values as feed and medicine. To identify different Melilotus species, we examined the efficiency of five candidate regions as barcodes, including the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and two chloroplast loci...

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Gene space in plant plastid genomes is well characterized and annotated, yet we discovered an unrecognized open reading frame (ORF) in the fern lineage that is conserved across flagellate plants. METHODS We initially detected a putative uncharacterized ORF by the existence of a highly conserved region between rps16 and matK in a series of matK alignments of leptosporangia...