INTRASPECIFIC RELATIONSHIP WITHIN THE GENUS CONVOLVULUS L. INFERRED BY rbcL GENE USING DIFFERENT PHYLOGENETIC APPROACHES

 

SHAZIA KOUSAR¹, SYEDA QAMARUNNISA², ANJUM PARVEEN^3* AND ISHRAT JAMIL³

 

¹Department of Botany, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan

²The Karachi Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, KIBGE, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan

³Centre for Plant Conservation, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan

^*Correspondence author’s email: anjum_tahir@yahoo.com

 

Abstract

 

A molecular systematics analysis was conducted using sequence data of chloroplast rbcL gene for the genus Convolvulus L., by distance and character based phylogenetic methods. Fifteen representative members from genus Convolvulus L., were included as ingroup whereas two members from a sister family Solanaceae were taken as outgroup to root the tree. Intraspecific relationships within Convolvulus were inferred by distance matrix, maximum parsimony and bayesian analysis. Transition/transversion ratio was also calculated and it was revealed that in the investigated Convolvulus species, transitional changes were more prevalent in rbcL gene. The nature of rbcL gene in the present study was observed to be conserved, as it does not show major variations between examined species. Distance matrix represented the minimal genetic variations between some species (C. glomeratus and C. pyrrhotrichus), thus exhibiting them as close relatives. The result of parsimonious and bayesian analysis revealed almost similar clades however maximum parsimony based tree was unable to establish relationship between some Convolvulus species. The bayesian inference method was found to be the method of choice for establishing intraspecific associations between Convolvulus species using rbcL data as it clearly defined the connections supported by posterior probability values.

 

Key words: Convolvulus, Intraspecific relationships, Phylogenetics, Genetic distance, Transition/transversion, rbcL gene.