RESTRICTION-SITE VARIATION OF PCR-AMPLIFIED CHLOROPLAST DNA REGIONS AND ITS IMPLICATION FOR THE EVOLUTION AND TAXONOMY OF ACTINIDI

Twenty six restriction sites from five PCR-amplified chloroplast DNA s equences (rbcL, psbA, rpoB, and two spacers flanking the trnL gene) we re mapped and analysed in 20 Actinidia taxa, encompassing all four sec tions into which the genus is divided. At least three species out of t he 20 examined have been found to have originated through natural inte rspecific hybridisation on the basis of the discrepancy between morpho logical and biochemical traits and the cpDNA profiles of pairs of spec ies. A widely reticulate evolution has therefore been postulated in Ac tinidia. Wagner and weighted parsimony analysis produced consensus tre es that did not match the traditional taxonomy based on morphological characters. The molecular data clearly showed that some taxa, such as A. I ufa and A. kolomikta, occupy a wrong position and most, if not al l, of the traditional groups represented by sections and series are we akly supported, since they appear as polyphyletic. A. chinensis and A. deliciosa were confirmed to be very closely related. Since chloroplas t DNA is paternally inherited in Actinidia, A. chinensis is a paternal progenitor, if not the only one, of A. deliciosa, the domesticated ki wifruit.