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Molecular phylogeny of Cotoneaster (Rosaceae) inferred from nuclear ITS and multiple chloroplast sequences

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Abstract

Cotoneaster Medik. (Rosaceae, Maloideae) is distributed in Europe, North Africa, and temperate areas of Asia except Japan. Members of the genus exhibit considerable morphological variation. The infrageneric classification is also obscured by polyploidy, hybridization, and apomixis. In this study, phylogenetic analyses were conducted to test infrageneric classifications of this genus using DNA sequence data from the nuclear ITS (nrITS) region and three chloroplast intergenic spacer regions. Maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference analyses of both datasets agreed with the two sections/subgenera of Koehne’s classification system, and suggested that four subsections (Microphylli, Chaenopetalum, Adpressi, and Cotoneaster) and the series of Koehne’s classification system were non-monophyletic. The incongruence length difference test indicated that the nrITS and cpDNA datasets were significantly incongruent (P = 0.001), and the placement of 14 species was discordant in phylogenetic trees derived from the two datasets. Within Cotoneaster, hybridization was indicated to be an important factor contributing to the incongruence between the nrITS and cpDNA data. By mapping nine morphological characters onto the combined nrITS–cpDNA phylogenetic tree, we inferred that a deciduous habit, glabrous fruit, white anthers, erect and light pink petals, and white filaments are plesiomorphic character states in Cotoneaster.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Li Jianhua of Hope College, Li Pengyuan and Zhang Jielong of Sun Yat-Sen University for providing materials as well as assisting in plant collection and identification. We also thank Zhang Jia of South China Agricultural University for advice on suitable molecular methods. We are especially grateful to Dr. Zhou Renchao of Sun Yat-Sen University for sharing his knowledge and for his valuable comments on an early version of this manuscript. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 31100159, No. 31170202 and No. 31061160184), the Ministry of Education Doctoral foundation of China (20090171120034, 20110171110032), and the foundation project of the National Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2013FY111500).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Dynamics and Conservation of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People’s Republic of China

    Feifei Li, Qiang Fan, Qingyan Li, Sufang Chen & Wenbo Liao

  2. College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China, Beijing, 100081, People’s Republic of China

    Feifei Li

  3. College of Agriculture and Landscape Architecture, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, 510225, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Guo

  4. College of Forestry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, People’s Republic of China

    Dafang Cui

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  1. Feifei Li
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Correspondence to Dafang Cui or Wenbo Liao.

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Li, F., Fan, Q., Li, Q. et al. Molecular phylogeny of Cotoneaster (Rosaceae) inferred from nuclear ITS and multiple chloroplast sequences. Plant Syst Evol 300, 1533–1546 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-014-0980-5

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