CHLOROPLAST DNA VARIATION AND PHYLOGENY OF THE RANUNCULACEAE

Restriction site mapping of chloroplast DNA from 31 species representi ng 26 genera of the Ranunculaceae was performed using eleven restricti on endonucleases. The chloroplast genome varies in length from approxi mately 152 to 160 kb. Length variants are frequent in the Ranunculacea e and range from usually less than 300 bp to rarely 1.5 kb. The invert ed repeat is extended into the large single copy (LSC) region by 4-4.5 kb in Anemone, Clematis, Clematopsis, Hepatica, Knowltonia, and Pulsa tilla. Several inversions are present in the LSC-region of the cpDNA i n all these genera and in Adonis. The frequency of restriction site mu tations varies within the chloroplast genome in the Ranunculaceae betw een 4 and 32 mutations per kilobase, and is lowest in the inverted rep eat and the regions containing the ATPase-genes and the genes psaA, ps aB, psbA, rpoB, and rbcL. A total of 547 phylogenetically informative restriction sites was utilized in cladistic analyses of the family usi ng Wagner, Dollo, and weighted parsimony. These three parsimony analys es result in different tree topologies. Four, six, and one equally mos t parsimonious trees were obtained with Wagner, Dollo, and weighted pa rsimony, respectively. The amount of support for the monophyletic grou ps was evaluated using bootstrapping and decay analysis. All three par simony methods suggest that Hydrastis is the sister group to the remai nder of the Ranunculaceae, and that the Anemone-Clematis group, which shares several derived cpDNA rearrangements, is monophyletic. Only a f ew of the traditional groups in the Ranunculaceae are supported by cpD NA restriction side data. Only Dollo parsimony provides support for th e hypothesis that Thalictroideae and Ranunculoideae are monophyletic.