Estimation of phylogenetic relationships of Phlomis species based on seed protein polymorphism

ABSTRACT

In this study, phylogenetic relationships among 39 Phlomis taxa were investigated based on seed protein profiles produced by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). A total of 21 polypeptide bands were scored, of which, 19 were polymorphic among the taxa of the genus Phlomis. A distance matrix was generated from the similarity matrix which was computed by using Jaccard’s similarity coefficients, based on polymorphic bands and then an UPGMA tree was established through cluster analysis performed on the distance matrix. Genetic distances ranged from 0.00 to 0.50 within subsection Dendrophlomis; from 0.00 to 0.625 within subsection Gymnophlomis and from 0.00 to 0.769 within subsection Oxyphlomis. The UPGMA tree formed four groups. The topology of the tree is in agreement with the taxonomic view regarding the section Phlomis as it is divided into three subsections as Dendrophlomis, Gymnophlomis and Oxyphlomis based on morphological characters. The grouping pattern of the tree also indicated that subsection Dendrophlomis is more closely related to subsection Gymnophlomis than subsection Oxyphlomis.