Infra-specific variation of Acer cappadocicum (Sapindaceae): morphological and molecular approaches

Abstract

Besides Quercus, Acer L. genus is the largest tree genus in the Northern Hemisphere and consists of about 124-156 species. High morphological and molecular variability has led to infra-specific complexity within most species of this genus. In Iran, the Acer cappadocicum subsp. cappadocicum Gled. is distributed in eastern to western parts of the Hyrcanian forests. In this study, three leaf-morphotypes in A. cappadocicum Gled. were identified during sampling in a forest located in the Hyrcanian region, leading to obscuring taxonomic situations of this taxon. Against this backdrop, the present study was performed to clarify intraspecific situation of this valuable tree using both macro-/micromorphological and molecular approaches. Forty-five plant samples of A. cappadocicum were randomly selected within nine geographical regions of four provinces in Hyrcanian forests of Iran. Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) (for eight individuals) and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) molecular markers (for 45 individuals) were used along with the epidermal scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of the leaf epidermis. Considering the obtained results, acceptance of the expected lower taxa in A. cappadocicum ssp. cappadocicum in north of Iran could not be supported by molecular evidence. Results of the study indicated no correlation between variations in leaf-morphology, ISSRs, and ITS. However, there are two main clusters in ITS tree without discrete morphological characters showing differentiation and variability in ITS region within this species. This subspecies was compared also with other subspecies.

New insight into molecular phylogeny and morphology of the genus Acer L. (Sapindaceae) native to Türkiye

“…Many species of the genusAcer were mainly described according to leaf and fruit morphologies (Pojárkova 1949;Yaltırık 1967a;Walters 1968;Murray and Rechinger 1969;Guest 1980;Zohary 1987;Xu et al 2008). They present high variations in leaf-morphology shown in the number of synonyms and infraspecifc taxa (Grimm and Denk 2014;Siahkolaee 2021). Moreover, we observed enormous leaf variations within the series Monspessulanaand section Platanoidea during the field studies.…”

“…It may be reasonable to conclude that there is cryptic or ongoing speciation on the basis of different clades formed by morphologically identical individuals in the genetic trees. Similarly, Siahkolaee et al (2021) mentioned that Hyrcanian populations of A. cappadocicumsubsp. cappadocicum with identical morphological traits formed two different clades in the nrDNA ITS tree and they asserted the possibility of cryptic speciation in that area.…”

New insight into the molecular phylogeny and morphometrics of the genus Acer L. (Sapindaceae) native to Turkey

“…Leaf and fruit morphologies have been particularly instrumental in describing many Acer species (Pojárkova 1949;Yaltırık 1967a;Walters 1968;Murray and Rechinger 1969;Guest 1980;Zohary 1987;Xu et al 2008). These traits, which exhibit considerable variation that have led to numerous synonyms and infraspecific taxa in the genus (Grimm and Denk 2014;Siahkolaee 2021). The studies dealing with the Acer species in Turkey have focused mainly on systematic revisions (Yaltırık 1971;Mataracı 2012), wood anatomy (Başarır 2013), protein analysis (Pehlivan 2003), and pollen morphology (Pehlivan et al 2003;Akdogan et al 2013).…”

“…The chloroplast coding gene NADH dehydrogenase F (ndhF ), the noncoding chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) t-RNA (trnL-F intergenic spacer) gene, and the nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene region are commonly employed to address phylogenetic reconstruction and classification questions (Kim and Jansen 1995;Tian et al 2002;Acar et al 2022). Some recently published studies, including both molecular and morphometrical data, have been focused on Acer species (Siahkolaee, 2017;Siahkolaee et al, 2021;Fan et al, 2023). However, research to date has not extensively determined molecular and morphometric records on Acer species native to Turkey with a high number of samplings.…”

Changes in and Recognition of Electrochemical Fingerprints of Acer spp. in Different Seasons

“…Although Acer spp. are mainly distributed in temperate to subtropical regions, some species have extended their distribution into the tropics (e.g., Acer decandrum Merr in Hainan, China) [ 1 ]. The genus can be easily identified by opposite leaves and winged schizocarpic fruits (samaras), but other morphological characteristics are also highly diversified.…”