Proceedings of the XLV
Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress
Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy -
26/29 September, 2001
ISBN 88-900622-1-5
Poster Abstract
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY
AND GENETIC DIVERSITY OF ANTHYLLIS SPP.
NANNI L.*,
BELLUCCI E.*, COZZOLINO S.**, PAPA R.*
* Dipartimento di Biotecnologie Agrarie ed
Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Ancona, Ancona, Italy
** Dipartimento
di Biologia Vegetale, Universita' di Napoli Federico II
The genus Anthyllis (Fam. Fabaceae, tribe
Loteae, 2n=2x=12), is poorly studied and very few information are available on the
genetic variation among and within species. Consists of 19 species distributed in Europe, Africa and in
the Mediterranean basin. A. vulneraria is the most widespread species of
the genus with a distribution extending from Iceland over the whole Europe to
North Africa, Ethiopia and Near East. A. vulneraria presents an high
morphological polymorphism and, based on the plant morphology, over 30
intraspecific taxa were previously identified.
In order to study the
molecular phylogeny of this genus and compare it with the phylogeny based on
morphological and life history traits, the sequences of the internal transcribed
spacers ITS1 (18S-5.8S) and ITS2 (5.8S-25S) of the nuclear ribosomal DNA of 15
species and 13 subspecies of A. vulneraria were obtained. All the taxa under
study were also analyzed by 8
chloroplast microsatellites which warrant wider intraspecific variability and
the results were compared with the ITS phylogeny.
We found that the genus Anthyllis is not monophyletic and
consists of more distinct lineages. In particular, we observed two main clades:
the vulneraria and tetraphylla group. The first includes most of
the Anthyllis species and the second, several species more closely related to the Lotus genus.
In addition, we studied
the diversity among 44 accessions of A. tetraphylla, a forage legume of dry
areas distributed along all the
Mediterranean basin. The 44 accessions, from different origin from and
particularly from North Africa, were analyzed with 8 chloroplast SSR and 15
ISSR markers showing an high polymorphism among accessions.
A study on the population
structure is also in progress for A. vulneraria and A. montana.