PHYLOGENETIC-RELATIONSHIPS AMONG GENERA IN THE LILIACEAE-ASPARAGOIDEAE-POLYGONATAE S L INFERRED FROM RBCL GENE SEQUENCE DATA

The chloroplast gene encoding ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate-carboxylase (r bcL) was sequenced for phylogenetic analysis of 13 species (10 genera) in the tribe Polygonatae s.l. of the Liliaceae-Asparagoideae. The dat a were analysed using maximum parsimony and neighbour-joining methods. There were 233 phylogenetically informative sites out of 1368 base pa irs compared. The results suggest that there are three monophyletic gr oups within Polygonatae s.l. with high bootstrap confidence values. Gr oup A represents Polygonatae s.str., with genera Maianthemum, Smilacin a, Convallaria, Disporopsis, and Polygonatum. Group B contains Uvulari a and Disporum and group C includes Streptopus, Tricyrtis, Clintonia, and Prosartes. The study suggests that Polygonatae s.l. are not a mono phyletic group, including at least three groups of different phylogene tic origin. Monophyly of the taxa within groups A, B, and C is support ed by the high bootstrap confidence values (85-100%) of the bootstrap replications for both parsimony and neighbour-joining methods. The dif ferences between each group (calculated as 100x base substitutions per site) were 6.99-9.03 for group A and B, 4.92-7.35 for A and C, and 6. 66-7.57 for B and C.