DNA profiling resolves the limited importance of flower colour in defining varieties of Lantana camara

Abstract

Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), successfully used to establish flower colour, is of limited importance in characterising weedy varieties of Lantana camara. Initially the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) region was sequenced for common pink and common pink-edged red varieties of L. camara from Australia and L. urticofolia from the neotropics. This proved unhelpful in differentiating varieties due to a lack of variation and the hybrid origin of L. camara, necessitating the utilisation of DNA profiling techniques. Unweighted pair group method arithmetic average (UPGMA) analysis of RAPD data demonstrated that geographical proximity contributes more significantly to genetic relatedness than flower colour. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) likewise demonstrated that geography accounts for a relatively large variance component. These data indicate that the use of flower colour as a primary identification tool needs to be reevaluated. The use of RAPD may prove useful in characterising the weedy varieties of lantana present in Australia and the South Pacific. Since biological control efforts are being hindered by the inadequacy of current morphological taxonomy, it is expected that DNA profiling will underpin continuing studies on the management and control of L. camara.

Using genetic and morphological analysis to distinguish endangered taxa from their hybrids with the cultivated exotic pest plant Lantana strigocamara (syn: Lantana camara)

“…The Florida taxa differed from all other Lantana Genbank accessions in that samples from both Taiwan and Australia had greater variation suggesting considerable polymorphism for this gene region (Table 3). Comparing Italic characters were most important for discriminating groups in all analyses along the first two axes Genbank Lantana sequences, except L. camara from Scott et al (1997), which was incomplete, we identified 18 parsimonious, informative characters, suggesting a close relationship between the compared taxa (Table 3). With only 18 point mutations and difficulties of using putative hybrid sequences, it was not possible to create a robust consensus tree to examine evolutionary relations of the taxa.…”

“…RFLP-PCR data indicated the percentage of individuals in the sample with ITS region of L. strigocamara or L. depressa or both. The average number of individuals that had a band for the three ISSR primers scored (P811, P816 and P830) by population L. utricoides (Scott et al 1997;White et al 1990;Alvarez and Wendel 2003). To verify if this held true for our three study taxa, we sequenced the ITS region of six individuals with the putative pure morphological characters of the two varieties, L. strigocamara, and their hybrids per Sanders (1987a) description.…”

Lantana camara L. (sensu lato): an enigmatic complex

“…Therefore, weedy, naturalized and/or invasive complex constituents, broadly referred as L. camara L. (sensu lato) merit a deliberate taxonomic delineation (Sanders 2006). Complex constituents can be distinguished morphologically (flower size, shape and color; leaf size, hairiness and color; stem thorniness; height and branch architecture), physiologically (growth rates, toxicity to livestock) and, by their chromosome number, nuclear DNA content (Stirton 1979, Gujral and Vasudevan 1983, Scott et al 1997 and ploidy level (Stirton 1977, Palmer andPullen 1995). Studies have also reported leaf anatomical characteristics (Passos et al 2009) and detailed chemical profiling of foliar chemical constituents (Love et al 2009b, Sena et al 2012 as useful markers for supporting species delimitation.…”

Preference and Performance of the Polymorphic Flea-beetle, Alagoasa extrema, on Selected, Weedy Lantana camara Varieties

“…Genetic studies in Australia comparing the main weedy types in Australia ('common pink' and 'common pink-edged red'), demonstrated that flower colour was of limited importance in differentiation these types (Scott et al, 1997(Scott et al, , 2002. Through Analysis of Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers, Scott et al (2002) have identified affinities between L. camara in Australia and the South Pacific, and with Lantana spp.…”