Development of novel low-copy nuclear markers for Hieraciinae (Asteraceae) and their perspective for other tribes
Abstract
The development of three low-copy nuclear markers for low taxonomic level phylogenies in Asteraceae with emphasis on the subtribe Hieraciinae is reported. Marker candidates were selected by comparing a Lactuca complementary DNA (cDNA) library with public DNA sequence databases.
Interspecifi c variation and phylogenetic signal of the selected genes were investigated for diploid taxa from the subtribe Hieraciinae and compared to a reference phylogeny. Their ability to cross-amplify was assessed for other Asteraceae tribes.
All three markers had higher variation (2.1 MINUS SIGN 4.5 times) than the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) in Hieraciinae. Cross-amplifi cation was successful in at least seven other tribes of the Asteraceae.
Only three cases indicating the presence of paralogs or pseudogenes were detected. The results demonstrate the potential of these markers for phylogeny reconstruction in the Hieraciinae as well as in other Asteraceae tribes, esp. for very closely related species.