Phylogenetic analysis of Colchicum (Colchicaceae) genus by molecular markers from nuclear and chloroplast genome

Abstract

We evaluated the patterns of genetic variation of 16 Colchicum species, including 37 different genotypes, using RAPD marker and trnL–trnF chloroplast DNA sequence. A total of 861 polymorphic alleles through RAPDs showed a mean of  33.88 ± 3.80 alleles per primer, while mean major allele frequency was 0.067 ± 0.05. The sequence length of trnL–trnF ranged from 1022 bp to 1081 bp. The phylogenetic tree was constructed to understand the relationship between Colchicum species and the discrimination power of the nuclear and chloroplast genome for species. The results showed that trnL–trnF gene region grouped Colchicum species well in comparison with RAPD analysis. This data was also supported by haplotype network analysis, structure analysis and PCA (Principle Component Analysis). This study showed that there is a need for a characterization that contains more molecular and morphological methods to correctly distinguish Colchicum species.