Thlaspideae is an Old World tribe of Brassicaceae centered in SW Asia. Thirty–seven of 42 species (ca. 88%) in 13 genera of the tribe were analyzed using nuclear ITS and chloroplast trnL–F markers in a family–wide context. Both single–marker and concatenated phylogenies corroborated Thlaspideae as a well–supported monophyletic clade. With the exception of polyphyletic Alliaria and Parlatoria and paraphyletic Thlaspi and Didymophysa, the remaining genera were monophyletic. Alliaria petiolata comprised diploid and hexaploid populations in two well–resolved clades. The non–weedy diploid and hexaploid populations are restricted to SW Asia, and together with diploid A. taurica (formerly P. taurica), formed a sister clade to well–resolved Sobolewskia (3 spp.) and P. rostrata (now treated as the new monospecific genus Lysakia) clades. By contrast, the European and North American weedy and invasive hexaploid A. petiolata populations clustered with the diploid P. cakiloidea. Polyphyletic Thlaspi formed two distinct clades easily distinguished morphologically, and two of its six species are segregated into the new genus Mummenhoffia. Elburzia is reduced to synonymy of Didymophysa, and the new combinations D. fenestrata, Lysakia rostrata, Mummenhoffia alliacea, and M. oliveri are proposed and a diagnostic key for determination of Thlaspideae genera is presented. Age estimations based only on calibration by the controversial fossil Thlaspi primeavum resulted in unrealistic old age estimates. Chromosome counts are reported for 16 species.

Microsatellite markers were used to analyse the biodiversity of 57 accessions of different subspecies and varieties of wild Aegilops tauschii (2n = 2x = 14; D genome) collected across the major areas where it grows in Iran. Levels of diversity were high, with numbers of alleles averaging 7.3 (ranging up to 12) and polymorphism information contents averaging 0.6591. One accession was notably more similar to two of the D genome in hexaploid wheats (Triticum aestivum) used as outgroups. Within the Ae. tauschii accessions, no markers were characteristic for taxa or geographical origin, suggesting high gene flow between the subspecies and varieties, although some groupings, which could be related to geographical origin, were evident. This survey demonstrates the high diversity present in wild goatgrass in Iran, and indicates that there is value in sampling for useful genes for wheat breeding.

To evaluate the chemotaxonomic significance of the essential oils of 23 populations of 18 Iranian Ferula species, the chemical composition of the oils was investigated by GC/FID and GC/MS. Altogether, 84 constituents, representing 81.3-99.7% of the total composition of the oils, have been identified. The composition of six species of the genus, i.e., F. oopoda, F. foetida, F. behboudiana, F. diversivittata, F. galbaniflua, and F. hezarlalehzarica, has been reported for the first time. The main constituents identified were α-terpinyl acetate (73.3%), 2,3,4-trimethylthiophene (2; 49.0%), sabinene (75.3%), verbenone (5; 69.4%), β-pinene (59.0-66.3%), and (Z)-β-ocimene (41.7%). Cluster analysis (CA) of the percentage content of the essential oil components of the Ferula species resulted in the characterization of four groups, i.e., taxa containing either i) monoterpene hydrocarbons, ii) oxygenated monoterpenes, iii) organosulfur compounds, or iv) monoterpene, sesquiterpene, and aliphatic hydrocarbons as the principal classes of compounds. Based on the results obtained, the chemical independence of F. hirtella from F. szowitsiana and of F. galbaniflua from F. gummosa at the specific level was concluded and their positions as distinct species were confirmed. The chemotaxonomic relationships among the representatives of the genus Ferula have been discussed in detail.

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The taxa of Astragalus section Hymenostegis are an important element of mountainous and steppe habitats in Southwest Asia. A phylogenetic hypothesis of sect. Hymenostegis has been obtained from nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and plastid ycf1 sequences of up to 303 individuals from 106 species, including all 89 taxa currently assigned to sect. Hymenostegis, 14 species of other Astragalus sections, and two species of Oxytropis and one Biserrula designated as outgroups. Bayesian phylogenetic inference and parsimony analyses reveal that three species from two other closely related sections group within sect. Hymenostegis, making the section paraphyletic. DNA sequence diversity is generally very low among Hymenostegis taxa, which is consistent with recent diversification of the section. We estimate that diversification in sect. Hymenostegis occurred in the middle to late Pleistocene, with many species arising only during the last one million years, when environmental conditions in the mountain regions of Southwest and Central Asia cycled repeatedly between dry and more humid conditions.Astragalus is with about 2500-3000 species in 250 sections the largest genus of flowering plants [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] . It belongs to the legume family (Leguminosae or Fabaceae) that is, after Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, the third largest family of flowering plants 5 consisting of about 730 genera and nearly 19,300 species. Also its subfamily Papilionoideae, with about 478 genera and 13,800 species 5 , is very species rich. Astragalus belongs within this subfamily together with genera like Oxytropis and Colutea to the Astragalean clade of the so-called Inverted Repeat Lacking Clade (IRLC). Its members are all characterized by the loss of one copy of the two 25-kb inverted repeat regions in the chloroplast genome 2,[8][9][10] .Although species richness seems to be a general characteristic of the legumes, this feature is not evenly distributed among the groups within this family. Thus, Sanderson and Wojciechowski 11 found that Astragalus itself is not significantly more speciose compared to its close relatives, but that species richness is a feature of the entire Astragalean clade in comparison to the other groups of the IRLC. High species numbers can originate through constant accumulation of diversity through time or following a punctuated pattern, where bursts of diversification rates alternate with times of stasis 12 . The latter pattern often results from the evolution of a key innovation that provides the possibility to fill a new ecological niche, or from a key opportunity, i.e. the colonization of a new, formerly not inhabited area and speciation therein [12][13][14][15] . For Astragalus and the entire Astragalean clade the reason(s) for the high species numbers are still unclear. In an effort to better understand reasons for and timing of species diversification in Astragalus we here analyze a large section of the genus, where we put some effort into arriving at a complete species sample.