Contribution of WUSCHEL-related homeobox (WOX) genes to identify the phylogenetic relationships among Petunia species

Abstract

Developmental genes are believed to contribute to major changes during plant evolution, from infrageneric to higher levels. Due to their putative high sequence conservation, developmental genes are rarely used as molecular markers, and few studies including these sequences at low taxonomic levels exist. WUSCHEL-related homeobox genes (WOX) are transcription factors exclusively present in plants and are involved in developmental processes. In this study, we characterized the infrageneric genetic variation of Petunia WOX genes. We obtained phylogenetic relationships consistent with other phylogenies based on nuclear markers, but with higher statistical support, resolution in terminals, and compatibility with flower morphological changes.

Multiple markers, niche modelling, and bioregions analyses to evaluate the genetic diversity of a plant species complex

“…The ecological and/or environmental factors responsible for this isolation remain to be determined. Despite morphological similarities, phylogenetic analyses [ 24 , 25 ] found that P. bajeensis is not closely related to the remaining taxa of the complex; it is the sister species of the highland subclade in the short corolla tube clade.…”

“…A species tree was used as input for the online INFOMAP BIOREGIONS software [ 81 ] to reconstruct the ancestral range for the P. integrifolia complex through Fitch’s method of maximum parsimony [ 82 ]. The WUSCHEL gene sequences from Segatto et al [ 25 ] were used to construct the phylogenetic tree of the Petunia species, according to the classification of Stehmann et al [ 16 ]. We used these markers because the phylogenetic tree obtained based on WUSCHEL sequences was the best supported among Petunia phylogenies and it is in agreement with previous works using nuclear and plastid markers [ 24 ].…”

“…Phylogenetic analyses based exclusively or predominantly on plastid DNA (cpDNA) markers have revealed two major clades of Petunia species associated with elevation, a highland (> 500 m) and a lowland (< 500 m) clade [ 19 – 21 ]. On the other hand, studies using mostly nuclear markers have found two clades associated with corolla morphology (short vs. long corolla tube; Additional file 1 : Figure S1F) [ 22 – 25 ]. Phylogeographic studies of Petunia species sharing morphological, ecological or geographical traits have confirmed an extremely recent divergence of Petunia species and are indicative of a diversification following colonization processes related to climate changes that took place during the Pleistocene [ 21 , 26 – 31 ].…”

“…For the same reasons, P. riograndensis has also been synonymised as P. integrifolia [ 16 ]. The grouping of these pairs of taxa ( P. littoralis + P. depauperata and P. riograndensis + P. integrifolia ) is fully supported by the phylogeographic analysis of molecular data [ 27 , 28 ], thus justifying the synonyms; however, using a phylogenetic approach, a different scenario has been proposed [ 25 ]. In this work, we consider these taxa as synonymous, as suggested previously [ 16 ].…”

Homeobox genes encoding WOX transcription factors in the flowering parasitic plant Monotropa hypopitys

“…Центральная роль гена WUS в регуляции идентичности и поддержании плюрипотентных стволовых клеток в апи кальной меристеме побега показана для растений разных видов (Salvini et al, 2016;Segatto et al, 2016). Экспрессия WUS ограничена группой клеток, составляющих органи зующий центр, к которому прилегают стволовые клетки (Besnard et al, 2011;Sun, Ito, 2015), а подавление его экс прессии приводит к появлению эктопических меристем, преждевременно прекращающих свое развитие (Laux et al, 1996).…”