Bystropogon (Lamiaceae) is endemic to the Macaronesian Islands and represents the best-known example of a putative phytogeographic connection between these islands and the New World. Previous morphological taxonomic studies suggested that this genus is closely related to the western South American Minthostachys. Phylogenetic analyses of nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacers a...

The phylogeographic structure and postglacial history of balsam fir (Abies balsamea), a transcontinental North American boreal conifer, was inferred using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) markers. Genetic structure among 107 populations (mtDNA data) and 75 populations (cpDNA data) was analyzed using Bayesian and genetic distance approaches. Population differentiation was hi...

In maize (Zea mays L.), chloroplast development progresses from the basal meristem to the mature leaf tip, and light is required for maturation to photosynthetic competence. During chloroplast greening, it was found that chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) is extensively degraded, falling to undetectable levels in many individual chloroplasts for three maize cultivars, as well as Zea mexicana (the ancestor...

BACKGROUND Performing chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) isolation is considered a major challenge among different plant groups, especially conifers. Isolating chloroplasts in conifers by such conventional methods as sucrose gradient and high salt has not been successful. So far, plastid genome sequencing protocols for conifer species have been based mainly on long-range PCR, which is known to be time-con...

Restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of EcoRI-and ClaI-digested chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) within the genus Glycine subgenus Soja were characterized. Two mutations were found to be responsible for the EcoRI and ClaI restriction site polymorphisms, and both were located in a region in which many ribosomal protein genes are clustered. This region is within the large single copy region o...

BACKGROUND Chloroplast genomes supply valuable genetic information for evolutionary and functional studies in plants. The past five years have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of completely sequenced chloroplast genomes with the application of second-generation sequencing technology in plastid genome sequencing projects. However, cost-effective high-throughput chloroplast DNA (cpDNA)...

Revwattsia fragilis (Watts) D.L. Jones (Dryopteridaceae), originally described as a Polystichum Roth by the pioneer Australian botanist Reverend W.W. Watts in 1914, is a rare epiphytic fern endemic to northeastern Queensland, Australia. Known from only a few populations, it is restricted to tropical rainforests in the Atherton Tablelands. We used the cpDNA markers psbA-trnH, rbcL, rbcL-accD, rp...

Phylogeography in combination with ecological niche modeling (ENM) is a robust tool to analyze hypotheses on range shifts under changing climates particularly of taxa and areas with scant fossil records. We combined phylogeographic analysis and ENM techniques to study the effects of alternate cold and warm (i.e., glacial and interglacial) periods on the subtropical montane cold-tolerant conifer...

A genus-wide molecular phylogeny for Polystichum and allied genera (Dryopteridaceae) was reconstructed to address the biogeographic origin and evolution of the three Hawaiian Polystichum species, all endemic there. The analysis was based on the cpDNA sequences rbcL and the trnL-F spacer from a taxonomically and geographically diverse sample. Parsimony and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses of the c...

Overall phylogenetic relationships within the genus Pelargonium (Geraniaceae) were inferred based on DNA sequences from mitochondrial(mt)-encoded nad1 b/c exons and from chloroplast(cp)-encoded trnL (UAA) 5' exon-trnF (GAA) exon regions using two species of Geranium and Sarcocaulon vanderetiae as outgroups. The group II intron between nad1 exons b and c was found to be absent from the Pelargoni...