Phylogenetic relationship of 40 species of genus Aloe L. and the origin of an allodiploid species revealed by nucleotide sequence variation in chloroplast intergenic space and cytogenetic insitu hybridization

• Published in: Genetic resources and crop evolution Vol. 63; no. 2; pp. 235 - 242
• Main Authors: Lee, Yun Sun, Park, Hye Mi, Kim, Nam-Hoon, Waminal, Nomar E., Kim, Yeon Jeong, Lim, Ki-Byung, Baek, Jin Hong, Kim, Hyun Hee, Yang, Tae-Jin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 2016
• Subjects: Agriculture; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Life Sciences; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant Physiology; Plant Sciences; Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography; Research Article; Allodiploid interspecific hybrid; I; Genetic diversity; K
• ISSN: 0925-9864; 1573-5109
• DOI: 10.1007/s10722-015-0243-5

Aloe species, which have been used as medicinal plants, belong to the Asphodelaceae family consisting of 530 species. In this study, genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships among 40 Aloe species including a putative interspecies hybrid were analyzed using PCR band profiles from eight chloroplast intergenic space markers and nucleotide sequence diversity in the psb K– psb I intergenic region. A phylogenetic tree based on psb K– psb I sequences supported the revised classification of the genus Aloe as polyphyletic with several species be re-allocated into three genera Kumara, Aloidendron , and Aloiampelos . Further, the origin of the putative interspecies Aloe hybrid was characterized through molecular cytogenetics. Fluorescence and genomic in situ hybridization illustrated that the hybrid has a bimodal karyotype with a chromosome complement of 2 n  = 14, of which complementary halves were derived from two parental species, A. vera and A. arborescens . These findings revealed that the hybrid species was allodiploid. The phylogenetic analysis showed that A. arborescens was the maternal genome donor of the hybrid, as both have identical chloroplast genome sequences. We thus conclude that the allodiploid hybrid should be called A. arborescens  ×  A.vera.