Molecular phylogeny of Acer monspessulanum L. subspecies from Iran inferred using the ITS region of nuclear ribosomal DNA

HANIF KHADEMI (Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Hesarak)
IRAJ MEHREGAN (Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Hesarak)
MOSTOFA ASSADI (Research Institute of Forest and Rangelands, National Botanical Garden of Iran)
TAHER NEJADSATARI (Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Hesarak)
SHAHIN ZARRE (Department of Plant Sciences, School of Biology, College of Science, University of Tehran)

Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity
Vol. 17 No. 1 (2016)

Khademi H, Mehregan I, Assadi M, Nejadsatari T, Zarre S. 2015. Molecular phylogeny of Acer monspessulanum L. subspecies from Iran inferred using the ITS region of nuclear ribosomal DNA. Biodiversitas 17: 16-23. This study was carried out on the Acer monspessulanum complex growing wild in Iran. Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences for 75 samples representing five different subspecies of Acer monspessulanum were analyzed. Beside this, 86 previously published ITS sequences from GenBank were used to test the monophyly of the complex worldwide. Phylogenetic analyses were conducted using Bayesian inference and maximum parsimony. The results indicate that most samples of A. monspessulanum species from Iran were part of a monophyletic clade with 8 samples of A. ibericum from Georgia, A. hyrcanum from Iran and one of A. sempervirens from Greece (PP= 1; BS= 79%). Our results indicate that use of morphological characteristics coupled with molecular data will be most effective.