MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS OF THE SUBTRIBE GENTIANINAE (GENTIANACEAE) INFERRED FROM THE SEQUENCES OF INTERNAL TRANSCRIBED SPACERS (ITS) OF NUCLEAR RIBOSOMAL DNA

The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of 18S-25S nuclear ribosomal DNA from representatives of 23 species of the subtribe Gentianinae and one outgroup species (Centaurium capitatum) were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction amplification and direct DNA sequencing. Within the taxa analyzed, the length of the ITS1 region varied from 221 to 233 bp, ITS2 from 226 to 234 bp. Of the aligned sequences of 497 positions, 151 sites involved gaps or nucleotide ambiguity, 133 were invariable and 213 showed divergence. In pairwise comparisons among the taxa of the subtribe Gentianinae and the outgroup, sequence divergence ranged from 1.3% to 34.1% in ITS1, from 0 to 28.1% in ITS2 and from 0.6% to 27.5% in combined ITS1 and ITS2. Phylogenetic trees generated from ITS sequences were highly resolutive and principally concordant with morphological classifications for the major phylogenetic divisions in the subtribe. An ancient divergence leading to two evolutionary lines was suggested in the subtribe by both DNA sequence and morphological data. One line encompasses the genera Gentiana, Crawfurdia and Triprerospermum, morphologically characterized by their glands on the base of ovary and their plicate corolla, while the other line involves all other members of the subcribe surveyed, characterized by their epipetalous glands and simple corolla without plicae. Megacodon, with glands on the base of ovary but without plicae on its corolla, was revealed to be more related to the latter group than to the former. Comastoma, Gentianella and Gentianopsis were shown to be well-defined monophyletic genera. Pterygocalyx showed much closer affinity to Gentianopsis than to any other genus. Some conflictions were detected in the genus Swertia.