Phylogenetic relationship of some Achillea L. Taxa and close relatives from Asteraceae family

Abstract

Achillea L. genus has problematic phyletic structure due to frequent polyploidy and excessive level of hybridization. Achillea shows unforeseen affinities with Tanacetum L. according to some molecular studies based on nrDNA ITS and cpDNA trnL-F DNA. In this study the nrDNA ITS, cpDNA trnL (UAA) intron and trnL-F region of Achillea species and some Tanacetum species grown in Turkey were amplified and PCR products were sequenced. The DNA sequences were analyzed by MEGA 6.0 program and phylogenetic trees were constructed by Maximum Likelihood Method with 1000 bootstrap replicates. nrDNA, and two cpDNA sequences data sets were analyzed independently. nrDNA based phylogenetic tree showed conformity to the genus discrimination in Flora of Turkey but phylogenetic tree constructed by the trnL and trnL-F sequences showed differences in some details. Among theAchilleamembersAchilleavermicularis constituted as outgroup. © 2019 Parlar Scientific Publications. All rights reserved.