engleski

Low rate of point mutation in the mtDNA noncoding fragment of Hypericum taxa

Background and Purpose: Contrary to a major impact of phylogenetic studies on humans and animals, application of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis in plant phylogeny research is rather sporadic due to its high rate of rearrangments and low rate of point mutations. Nevertheless, mtDNA analysis gave interesting results in some taxa. With the aim to test variability and applicability of the mtDNA in the phylogenetic investigation of genus Hypericum, four noncoding regions of mtDNA were compared using the mtDNA RFLP on thirty-six Hypericum taxa. Materials and Methods: Total cellular DNA was extracted from fresh or frozen leaves of thirty-six Hypericum taxa native in different part of the world. The PCR-amplified products of four noncoding mtDNA regions (ccb, cox3, nad1, nad4) were digested with six restriction endonucleases. Results and Conclusions: Out of thirty-sixHypericum taxa belonging to fifteen sections and 14 restriction profiles, differences were observed in only two species profile. One deletion was found in the nad1/Hinf I restriction profile of H. pseudohenryi, while gain of restriction site was detected in the nad1/RsaI restriction profile of H. hirsutum. Obtained results confirmed slow sequence evolution of the Hypericum mtDNA, for plant mtDNA in general.

Hypericum; mtDNA RFLP; phylogeny

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