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Pak. J. Bot., 48(1): 143-153, 2016.

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MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF TRITICUM AND AEGILOPS GENERA BASED ON ITS AND MATK SEQUENCE DATA

AYTEN DIZKIRICI¹, CIGDEM KANSU² AND SERTAC ONDE^2*

Abstract: Understanding the phylogenetic relationship between Triticum and Aegilops species, which form a vast gene pool of wheat, is very important for breeding new cultivated wheat varieties. In the present study, phylogenetic relationships between Triticum (12 samples from 4 species) and Aegilops (24 samples from 8 species) were investigated using sequences of the nuclear ITS rDNA gene and partial sequences of the matK gene of chloroplast genome. The phylogenetic relationships among species were reconstructed using Maximum Likelihood method. The constructed tree based on the sequences of the nuclear component (ITS) displayed a close relationship between polyploid wheats and Aegilops speltoides species which provided new evidence for the source of the enigmatic B genome donor as Ae. speltoides. Concurrent clustering of Ae. cylindrica and Ae. tauschii and their close positioning to polyploid wheats pointed the source of the D genome as one of these species. As reported before, diploid Triticum species (i.e. T. urartu) were identified as the A genome donors and the positioning of these diploid wheats on the constructed tree are meaningful. The constructed tree based on the chloroplastic matK sequences displayed same relationship between polyploid wheats and Ae. speltoides species providing evidence for the later species being the chloroplast donors for polyploid wheats. Therefore, our results supported the idea of coinheritance of nuclear and chloroplast genomes where Ae. speltoides was the maternal donor. For both trees the remaining Aegilops species produced a distinct cluster whereas with the exception of T. urartu, diploid Triticum species displayed a monophyletic structure.

Key words: Aegilops, Triticum, Phylogeny, Maximum Likelihood, ITS, matK

¹Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Yuzuncu Yil University, 65080, Van, Turkey

²Department of Biological Sciences, Middle East Technical University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey

^*Corresponding author’s email: sertac@metu.edu.tr