Adil GÜNER, Vehbi ESER - optima

SEQUENCE VARIATION AND DISPERSAL ABILITY BY
EPIZOOCHORY IN MEDITERRANEAN CYNOGLOSSUM
(BORAGINACEAE): PRELIMINARY EVIDENCE FROM ITS AND
FRUIT TRAITS
Federico SELV� 1 , Andrea COPPI 2 , Lorenzo CECCHI 2
1 Dipartimento di Biotecnologie Agrarie, sez. Botanica, P.le Cascine 28, 50144 Firenze, Italy, selvi@unifi.it
2 Dipartimento di Biologia Evoluzionistica, Via G. La Pira 4, I-50121, Firenze, Italy, tasmaceto@gmail.com
Cynoglossum comprises ca. 75 biennial to perennial (rarely annual) herbs in the Old and New
World, mainly growing in open habitats and especially pasturelands. A major centre of
diversity is the Mediterranean, where some 30 species range from Anatolia to the Iberian
peninsula and north Africa. Taxonomists know that their identification is often difficult
mainly due a weak phenotypic differentiation in vegetative and reproductive characters.
Available karyological data also indicate highly conserved chromosome complements. This
may be associated with a relatively recent radiation triggered by the onset and spread of
nomadic and transhumant pasture in the Mediterranean pre-history, perhaps between 10.000
and 8.000 y.a. The role of migrating herds of sheep and other mammals as effective agents of
long-distance dispersal in epizoochorous plant groups has been experimentally shown by
various authors. Cynoglossum is one such groups, its fruits being provided with
characteristical glochids that allow the immediate interlocking to the fur of wild and
domesticated mammals, especially sheep and goats. We tested this hypothesis using a
combined morphoanatomical and phylogenetic approach. The dispersal ability of the fruits
was evaluated based on structural features examined using LM and SEM microscopy with
EDX microanalysis; their attachment potential to sheep and cattle coat was estimated by
means of the General Linear Models by Römermann et al. (in Oikos 110: 219-230, 2005).
Nuclear DNA ITS sequences were then generated for nearly all Mediterranean species. These
were used to open a window on the phylogeny of Cynoglossum and to evaluate the level of
ITS variation as compared with other genera of Boraginaceae characterized by mainly nonepizoochorous
strategies of seed dispersal.
Keywords: Cynoglossum, epizoochory, fruit morphology, molecular systematics, seed
dispersal, sequence variation
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