Adil GÜNER, Vehbi ESER - optima

MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETIC AND CYTOGENETIC INSIGHTS TO
GENERA WITH MEDITERRANEAN AND IRANO-TURANIAN TAXA.
CASE STUDIES IN THE ASTERACEAE
Joan VALLÈS 1 , Jaume PELLICER 2 , Ismael SÁNCHEZ-JIMÉNEZ 3 , Oriane HIDALGO 4 ,
Teresa GARNATJE 3 , Daniel VITALES 1 , Sònia GARCIA 3 , Joan MARTÍN 1
1 Laboratori de Botànica, Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Joan XXIII s.n., 08028 Barcelona,
Catalonia, Spain
joanvalles@ub.edu, dvitales@gmail.com, jomartinv@ub.edu
2 Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB, United Kingdom
j.pellicer@kew.org
3 Institut Botànic de Barcelona (CSIC-ICUB), Passeig del Migdia s.n., 08038 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
ismasanchez83@gmail.com, tgarnatje@ibb.csic.es, sphaeromeria@gmail.com
4 Plant Development and Evolution, Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, 500 Porter
Hall, Athens OH 45701, USA; orianehidalgo@hotmail.com
The Mediterranean and the Irano-Turanian regions are two waste floristic territories, which are
close to each other not only from geographical point of view, but regarding plant species and
landscapes as well. Its relatively large physical interface and the existence, even in very distant
parts, of similar botanical formations (among which steppe and semi-desert communities are
particularly relevant) imply coincidences and exchanges between both floristic elements. Many
plant genera have a significant presence in both floristic regions.
Apart from morphological and ecological considerations, molecular cytogenetic and phylogenetic
studies are nowadays useful, even indispensable to correctly assess the systematic relationships
among plant taxa and their evolutionary patterns.
The present communication will focus, with the above-mentioned approach, on several genera of
the Asteraceae family displaying an important amount of Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian taxa,
to establish the relationships between the representatives of both areas.
One outstanding such genus is Artemisia. With more than 500 species, its origin is located in the
Central Asian part of the Irano-Turanian region, and has a non-negligible occurrence in the
Mediterranean region, with some landscape-dominating species in both territories.
,Echinops, which comprises more than 100 species distributed in tropical Africa, the
Mediterranean basin and other temperate regions of Eurasia, is another good case study, because
it encompasses also Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian taxa.
The Rhaponticum group, made of ca. 40 species and widely distributed in Eurasia, Africa and
Australia, will also be considered for its Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian representatives
(basically in the genera Myopordon, Oligochaeta and Rhaponticum).
Different aspects of genome evolution (with cytogenetic data, including genome size assessment)
and molecular phylogeny of these genera will be commented, together with morphological and
other data, with emphasis on the relationships between their Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian
taxa.
Keywords: Artemisia, Echinops, genome evolution, molecular systematics, Rhaponticum.
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Oral Lectures